Welcome to the 354th issue of the Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter offering weekly insights into new, cool, useful, fun, unusual and interesting sites on the Internet.

- Power of Attorneys
- Urban Legends Reference Pages
- Detroit Funk
- Short Takes
- The Teenie Harris Archive Projec
- Fotolog.net
- Toonopedia
- African-American Migration Experience
- Manhole Sewer Art
- Subscribers' Sites

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Power of Attorneys

Love them or hate them, lawyers are skilled professionals who fight for our freedom, protect our rights, and defend us in times of need. Unfortunately, America's heralded legal system has been overrun with frivolous lawsuits taken on by a very active minority of unscrupulous attorneys.

PowerofAttorneys.Com aims to bring honor and fairness back to America's courts. Visitors will find both serious and light-hearted material about the legal system, from info on current class-action suits and personal injury cases to funny lawyer jokes and stories about absurd lawsuits.

http://www.power-of-attorneys.com/

Urban Legends Reference Pages

We have all heard the countless stories known as "urban legends", modern myths that are told and retold yet cannot be proven true. While most of these stories are eventually proven to be false, they are nevertheless fascinating and entertaining glimpses into the darker side of our culture.

The Urban Legends Reference Page at Snopes.Com has an extensive list of legends, all of which are organized into categories such as "Cokelore", "Horrors", "Love", "Travel", etc. Be sure to check out the "Hottest 25 Legends" section to get up to speed on the latest in modern mythology.

http://www.snopes.com/

Detroit Funk

Take a virtual tour of Detroit, Michigan by exploring it through the eyes of a local resident. Detroit Funk is an opinionated photography site that explores the streets, politics and culture of the Motor City.

Browse through the photographs of Detroit's many forgotten corners and hidden places. The website's creator is quite passionate about local politics and over-development, so many of the images and commentary is related to these current issues.

http://www.detroitfunk.com/

SHORT TAKES

Larger Than Life

Size matters at "Larger Than Life", an online gallery of extremely large renderings of ordinary objects. Notable structures include a giant dinosaur located in Tennessee, as well as a twenty-foot tall statue of a "Hot Dog Man" in Atlanta, Georgia.

http://www.ohiobarns.com/othersites/largerthanlife/ltl.html

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Watch yourself become art at this cool site. Just answer a few simple questions about yourself, then watch as that information is turned into a novel interpretation of the Dutch painter's unique style.

http://rhizome.org/artbase/24114/myData/

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Kiddie Records Weekly

Take a playful trip down memory lane at Kiddie Records Weekly, a website that releases MP3 versions of children's stories and songs from the 1940's and 50's. Nostalgic highlights include "Pecos Bill", "Hopalong Cassidy", and "Herman Ermin in Rabbit Town".

http://www.kiddierecords.com/

The Teenie Harris Archive Project

For forty years Teenie Harris worked as a photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the most influential African-American newspapers in the nation. His images, which number in the thousands, document the cultural evolution of America's Black community from the period just after the Great Depression all the way up to the Civil Rights Movement.

Mr. Harris' body of work conveys an extensive and impressive slice of 20th Century African-American History. Browse through the image gallery, read a short biography, and check out the Teenie Chronology, a timeline of significant events in this legendary photographer's life.

http://www.cmoa.org/teenie/info.asp

Fotolog.net

If you've got a digital camera and access to the Internet, it is easy to share your experiences with friends and family all over the world. Now, instead of emailing photos and clogging up your fragile email account, you can create your very own "fotolog" that people can visit to view your latest pics.

Not to be confused with "photo album storage sites" such as Ofoto or Shutterfly, Fotolog.net is a different sort of online showcase for your personal pictures. While users can update their images as often as they want, the format is that of a log or a diary so you can only post a few of your latest and greatest pictures at a time. This is a great way to share special experiences with loved ones as they happen, such as an exciting holiday or the birth of a child.

http://www.fotolog.net/

Toonopedia

Fans of animated films, comic books, and cartoons will want to bookmark this cool site. Toonpedia, founded by Donald D. Markstein, is a huge virtual encyclopedia of 'toon' information from all over the United States.

Visitors will find biographies on a wide array of characters in the tune universe from "Alvin and the Chipmunks" to "Zippy the Pinhead". There is also info on the people behind the world's most famous cartoons as well as current news stories from the animated universe.

http://www.toonopedia.com/

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African-American Migration Experience

Sponsored by The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, "In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience" explores the thirteen different migrations that brought people of African descent to the United States. The online exhibition offers a deeper look into African-American history and its historical paths, which are crowded with stories of brutality and survival, as well as inspiration, courage and achievement.

Visitors can learn about the many defining periods of this migration, including a painful but accurate look at The Transatlantic Slave Trade. There are also courageous stories of voluntary journeys by Africans who immigrated to America in search of freedom and opportunity, as well as detailed maps that track the geographical and chronological migration to various areas of North America.

http://www.inmotionaame.org/home.cfm

Manhole Sewer Art

To most of us a manhole is just something we drive over, a circular doorway into an underground world we'd rather not visit. But to some city planners and urban artists, manholes are seen as iron canvases on which to place seals, city logos, and original artwork.

This site is a gallery of 'Sewer Art', containing images of diverse manholes from every continent on the planet. Check out the various photos, read a brief history of modern sewage systems, then go to the "Manshop" where you can buy t-shirts and postcards adorned with, well, manholes.

http://www.manhole.ca/

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

~ The Music Box

~ Kards4Kids

~ Flirting is Fun

~ mminder.com - or forget it.

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

Banish uncertainty.
Affirm strength.
Hold resolve.
Expect Death.

~ TAO

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Have a great weekend.

Charles Kessler