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The Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter #331 12/30/4 |
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Welcome to the 331st issue of the Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter offering weekly insights into new, cool, useful, fun, unusual and interesting sites on the Internet.
I was looking for a vehicle of contribution, where most of the money donated would actually wind up in the hands of those who are suffering. I invited my friend Dr. Larry Brilliant to address this issue in the newsletter. Here are his words. The Seva Foundation began 25 years ago as an international health organization focusing on eyes and conquering blindness in India, but today there is not one of us with a single dry eye when we look at the extent of human suffering in the wake of the tsunami catastrophe in South Asia. The people of South India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand and Indonesia are dear to us - friends and family to us - and we need to reach out now more than ever and offer a loving, respectful, helping hand. For these reasons, we have established the "Seva SouthAsia Emergency Fund" to receive donations for this catastrophe. We will personally make sure the money you send is given to the poorest of the poor, used to prevent disease, provide homeless support or child health services. We ask for your support, your donations online (http://www.seva.org) or telephone (800 223 7382), which we will make certain are used in the most effective and loving way possible, working with other agencies in the field.
In this issue: Our Picks for the Best Sites of 2004 - BBC
World Service: Programmes Archive
Listen to radio broadcasts from the BBC World Service Programme Archives, from African performances, to American plays; special news reports from around the world and features on business, health, science, technology and health. With country profiles for an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries, including audio and video clips from the BBC archives. Features include TV, Radio and National Homepages plus access to archived feature stories, station schedules and The Week at a Glance. Even make the world small with access to local worldwide message boards, local sports, local news, club reviews theatre guides and weather reports. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/archive/index.shtml World Wide Panoramas If you could use a change of scenery, World Wide Panoramas provides breathtaking VR panoramic pictures from over 40 countries throughout the world. Browse the extensive list of photos by region, alphabetically or photographer to catch a glimpse of some of the many places in the world which deserve such attention. Created by over 180 photographers, all of the panoramas were made on March 20th in celebration of the Equinox. They have been collected and displayed thanks to some folks from UC Berkeley, in an effort to spread the gospel of panoramas. From the Independence Square in Kiev to the San Mateo coast in northern California, visitors will find a wonderfully varied collection of this little blue/green ball we live on. http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp304/index.html Earth From Above You don't have to have wings to see what the world looks like from above. Thanks to this amazing site, you can get a "bird's eye view" of some of the most stunning sites on Earth. Visitors can select from almost a hundred nations around the world. After choosing a country, click on thumbnail images to see a series of sites from these wonderful foreign lands from above. The photographs provide a shockingly beautiful and original perspective on the planet. http://www.yannarthusbertrand.com/yann2/affichage.php
TheyTookEverything.com Sometimes tradition gets it all wrong. How else to explain why we throw big parties to shower household appliances, dishes and linens on couples who are joining their household goods-when the time people really need this stuff is after they split up and separate their goods, inevitably leaving one former partner without a TV, VCR or saucepan to his name!? At They Took Everything, suddenly singles can register for electronics, kitchen essentials, linens, all the stuff they really need now because the ex- got everything. http://www.theytookeverything.com/
If you've ever dreamed of having a chicken of your own to order around (who hasn't?) then this is the site for you. View three hysterical clips of the 'Subservient Chicken', or simply type in a whimsical command and watch in amazement as he immediately obeys you. http://www.subservientchicken.com/
Music takes on a novel format through this Clown Staples Flash Experiment. Watch in amazement as the most popular Operating System in the world transforms into a virtual philharmonic. http://www.geocities.com/clownstaples/index.html Enjoy the newsletter? Tell your friends to subscribe by sending an email to: cooltricks-join-request@list.adventive.com Veterans of Atomic Testing The atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima that effectively ended World War II marked the beginning of the 'Atomic Age'. For years after the war, the US military tested this new technology behind a heavily guarded wall of secrecy. Now, thanks to the declassification of government documents and the personal accounts of many of those who witnessed the decades of nuclear testing, we can learn about this fascinating if not frightening era in history. The Atomic Veterans History Project, created in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Operation Castle, contains over 600 personal narratives from United States Servicemen who participated in and witnessed this early atomic weapons testing. In addition to the interesting personal perspective brought by these individual accounts, visitors will find other cool features such as a timeline of Atomic test dates, and videos available for purchase online. http://www.aracnet.com/~pdxavets/index.shtml 300 Love Letters This is a cool site created by a lovely person. 300 Love Letters (it is actually 400 but we'll let her explain why) is one young woman's project/experiment to tap into the universal emotion of love that connects us all. The site looks a bit like a Rubik's Cube, with each colored square representing one of her 'love letters'. She has written to friends, relatives, acquaintances, complete strangers, lovers, enemies, herself and just about any other category of person you can think of. The letters are her attempt to explore her own relationship with love as well as to attempt to reach out to the deepest connection of truth that we all share. http://sleeptrip.com/300loveletters/ A Guide to the History of Operating-System GUIs Point, click, drag, crash. For many of us, operating systems can act as a best friend or their worst nightmare. Those of us old enough to remember the early days of the pc will happily tell you that in truth, things have gotten better. Case in point is the Guidebook to GUI Gallery, which contains a history of all the Operating-Systems, especially the ones we love to hate. Take a walk down memory lane and marvel at the early GUIs, like Amiga's Workbench 1.0, OS/2, Mac's System 1, and Windows 1.0. Complete with screenshots of each os' desktop, applications, system functions, and other components, this site will interest grizzled vets and the younger folks who are interested in how things used to be. The collection does include everything up to the most current GUIs, so interested visitors may compare the old and the new. http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/index ~~~~~ Cool Tricks and Trinkets is made possible by~~~~~~
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This is a very simple but very cool website where participants submit and upload each other's images onto their computer desktop. The artistic concept behind 'The Desktop Project is that a 'desktop' is a sort-of modern day 'personality mirror' that reflects how a person organizes their own personal space, as well as an emotional, psychological, and sociological reflection of their life. Visitors can view desktop images from all over the world, which offers a unique insight into the current trend of 'globalization'. Scroll through the international gallery of pictures, sorted by country of origin, where you will see the artistic, passionate, hysterical and mundane 'lives' of people as expressed through their computer desktop. Strong Bad's Real 100th E-Mail Courtesy of Mike & Craig at Homestarrunner.com, enjoy this hilarious adventure featuring Strong Bad and the cult cartoon's quirky cast of characters. It marks the 100th 'real E-mail' Strong Bad has returned to his loyal legion of fans. After watching this anniversary installment, check out other 'emails' and episodes courtesy of the Homestarrunner crew. There are also fun games on the site, interviews with each of the unique characters, and an online store where fans can purchase apparel and other cool stuff. http://homestarrunner.com/sbemailahundred.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 ctt@net-market.com ~ Frequently Unasked Questions
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