The Best of the Web

The longer I've been a technology nerd, the more I've come to expect of the tools I use, and the internet is no exception. Luckily, the web does not disappoint--there's plenty of great stuff out there. In this issue, we'll look at some of my favorites.

Flash Gizmos

Bembo's Zoo: Watch text turn into animals right before your eyes! Sound impossible? It isn't!

NameVoyager: Wondering what to name your baby? This site produces fascinating graphs of the most popular baby names of the last century.

Someone keeps stealing my letters...: This is oddly, strangely addicting. Imagine a refrigerator door covered with letters, and a hundred people simultaneously moving them. Things get weird very quickly.

Educational

Plants-In-Motion: This is one of the coolest things ever. Watching these film clips will make you look at plants in a whole new way. It might even make you think twice before you pick that dandelion.

Twenty Questions: The childhood game on steroids--Twenty Questions is just what it sounds like. You think of an item, and the computer tries to guess what you're thinking about in twenty questions or less. The eerie thing about it is that it really does guess what you're thinking of with a high degree of accuracy.

Interactive Body: Do you know where your spleen is? How about your heart? If someone handed you an internal organ, could you put it back in place for them, and in the right rotation? This game is really, really hard, but also interesting, well-made and morbidly fun.

Eye Candy

Iceland: These pictures were taken of an area in northeastern Iceland, where the Kárahnjúkar Dam is being built. The landscape is breathtaking--and will be destroyed when the dam is built.

Logoed: A collection of good examples of design, with company logos as the basis. Interesting and inspirational if you're into graphic design.

Miscellaneous

Free After Rebate: I never could turn down a good deal. This site is dedicated to all of those special deals that involve free stuff.

Many Books: Need something to read? Download more than you will ever have time for, formatted for your PDA. You can also read them online if you prefer.

Global Ideas Bank: This is a hard one to explain. It's dedicated to ideas of all kinds, and is intended for people to share all of the wonderful inspirations they have.

How Much Was That?: You always hear people talk about the good old days, and how they bought a candy bar for a nickel. Well, find out how much that was in "real money".

How to Fold a Shirt: Fun party trick to amaze your neat-freak friends--folding shirts! Actually, this is just my favorite of the bunch. There are lots of different things to see at this site.

The Usual

The following links are well-known, but will be listed again here for those of you who are less acquainted with the net.

Fark: The most interesting news on the internet. The captions alone make the site worth visiting.

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things. Interesting news, but in a different format and with a different focus than Fark.

Snopes: Debunk your favorite urban legend. You can kill hours at this site, and also, really annoy your friends.