Teddy Turns 100

The teddy bear is a hundred years old...and seeing as it doesn't talk, walk, read you stories or have a USB port, I predict it's iminent death.

In Search of...Historic Mickey

Is this 700-year-old picture found in a church fresco Mickey Mouse? His ancestor? A beaver? Decide for yourself...

Instant Atari

Avon's selling an Atari emulating joystick - there's no console involved, you simply plug the vintage-lookalike controller into the RCA jacks on your television and you're ready to play any of ten included games, such as Asteroids and Yar's Revenge.

Getting the Lead Out

Sculptor Dalton Ghetti makes intricate sculptures from the lead of pencils and for added difficulty level, he doesn't even use a microscope. Obviously, the process takes forever and the risk of destroying your creation is ultra-high, leaving you with a broken piece of pencil lead after all that effort. I find these kinds of artists, the ones who work with unusual/weird/difficult mediums really interesting, you have to wonder what makes this guy tick, what drives him to work years on one of these pieces.

Radial Pong

A JavaPong game with a twist.

The Steady Hand Game

Can you navigate the trail with your mouse?

Super-Small Tetris

A mega-tiny version of Tetris so small you have to watch on an electron microscope.

The Colossal Colon Tour

What better way to raise colo-rectal cancer awareness than by crawling through a 40-foot long, four-foot high replica of a human colon? Who needs Disneyland when there are attractions like this travelling the country?

Speed Cube

Video of a guy solving a Rubik's cube in 18 seconds. The whole story of the cube can be found here - apparently Rubik didn't really have a puzzle in mind, he was just playing around with geometric designs and when he'd built it, turned it a few times and realized he couldn't get it back to it's original state to save his life, he knew he was onto something.

Pavlov the Dog

Flash 'toons about a hapless lab dog named Pavlov.

Digital Charity

I think I posted this site already, long ago but it's certainly worth repeating and now that I think of it, worth putting up on my permanent links collection as well, which is an oversight I'll be sure to correct a.s.a.p. Digitalcharity.com is an easy way for you to give a little, with a bare minimum of fuss. It's a selection of sites that - with help from sponsor programs - will allow you to contribute to various charities simply and easily. Just pick a charity, click a link and you're done. In fact, I'd say it takes a total of 2 minutes (if that) to click through all the ones listed at the top of The Hunger Site page and they're all worthwhile causes. I particularly like the Animal Rescue Site - each time you click, sponsors pay for a bowl of food for a homeles, sheltered animal - but I'm making it a point to go there each day and click all of them since it's so easy, like I said, there's really no reason not to.

A more extensive list of charities like this can be found here on this page, which a poster on Fark owns and offered up in one of the forum threads regarding makethatdifference.com, yet another charitable meta-site.

My Way

My Way is a new internet portal that's out to compete with the big boys and really seems pretty worthwhile. While Yahoo!'s main and their "My Yahoo!" pages use Google, the results were filtered through the Yahoo! directory instead of just giving you the straight up results of a normal Google search, which bugged me. I couldn't configure my address bar to use Google as it's default, either, which also bugged me. Sure, I could just use Google as my start page but I also like having the news items and other stuff I have on my Yahoo! start page when I connect, so I can get a quick look at what's going on in the world and make sure there's no crazy smallpox outbreak, nothing's blown up, on fire or nuked as I drink my morning Mountain Dew.

My Way to the rescue. Not only is there a straight-up Google search bar, complete with the "I'm feeling lucky" button, but it's practically a carbon copy of Yahoo's main page - without all the extemporaneous junk they've started adding of late. My Way loads up superfast (up to 53 percent faster than Yahoo! according to their boast, which sounds about right) and I get my news and my handy Google search. Worth a look if you're a Google devotee and you want a good, fast-loading start page with google, news, etc. and a minimum of crap.

Halloween Leftover

Yeah, Halloween is over but this was just too funny not to post. A collection of mind-bogglingly cheesy kids' costumes from days gone by. Gabe Kaplan? Chachi? I pity the poor children that had to wear these monstrosities, especially the poor little guys whose parents bought them the Leather Biker Village People Guy costume pictured above. Probably they still bear scars from that one.

::bloggar.w

Is a sweet little blog interface that works with Blogger, Moveable Type, etc. My friend recommended it the other day and I've been playing with it. Easy to set up - just download the program, enter your Blogger name and pass as normal and you're ready to go. There are handy menu items for doing mundane tasks like inserting spaces, text color and other things.

Bugging You

A cute little Flash 'toon from Smilepop. The rest of their cartoons and e-cards can be found here.

Happy Halloween!

What with the trick-or-treat season upon us, I thought it might be nice to post a little spookiness in the way of Halloween-related websites. Since I have a little theme going here I'm doing this all in one post and will probably be adding to it in the next day or two, so if you were here recently, scroll down and there may be fresh sites added. By the way, the picture above is a thumbnail of some Halloween wallpaper I made in Photoshop awhile back. If you'd like to download it for your own desktop, click here for 800x600 version, here for the 1024x768 and here for 640x480 sized.



Bloody Finger Email

Send your friends a scary Flash e-greeting, written by a horrible, bloody finger.



Because Nothing is Scarier Than Clowns...

The Evil Clown Generator.



The Haunted Foyer

What's scarier? Jan's tour of the haunted house...or the midi music she liberally used on the page? You be the judge.



The Castle of Death

Real-life horror - the story of America's first recognized serial killer, H.H. Holmes and the house of murder he built in 19th century Chicago, where the depraved druggist practiced his horrific trade.

A Ben and Jerry's Halloween

Ah...I love a good bowl of Ben and Jerry's. The ice-cream making duo have loaded their website with Halloween-themed wallpaper, games and other goodies in honor of the season.

Scary Sounds

A big collection of spooky wavs - doors creaking, screams, sounds from horror movies and more.



Scary Movies

What would Halloween be without a good scary movie? There are TONS of sites on this topic, here are a few nice ones:

Upcoming Horror Movies is devoted to keeping you up-to-date on the latest fright flicks, with news, articles and trailers.

The simply named Horror Movies site is full of news, rumors and information for the movie-making insider as well as the fans, with message boards and other points of interest regarding the industry.

Horror Movies That Suck - for those who'd prefer something a little cheesier, with reviews of classics like Bride of Chucky and the forgettable Dracula 2000.

Pumpkin Carving

The how-to's of the art of making Jack-O-Lanterns, with instructions, tips and links for supplies and related sites.



Dracula Tour

For the really die-hard fright-fans among you, why not the ultimate Halloween vacation? A full-tilt week-long tour of Transylvania - complete with the focus on the real-life Count Dracula - you'll see his birthplace, his grave and get to inspect every nook and cranny of the Count's castle, made famous by the Bram Stoker novel, Dracula. With a masquerade ball, four-star treatment and a full-to-bursting itinerary of things to see as you trek across Vlad the Impaler's former haunts, this could be the best trip a horror fan ever takes.



Trick or Treat!

A short, funny little Flash 'toon about some trick-or-treaters getting the (ahem) crap scared out of them.

Well, that's all for now - if you find yourself in need of anything else - costume ideas, more Halloween websites, whatever - just go to Halloween Magazine for tons of stuff. History, links, costume ideas, recipes, etc. Don't pig out on too much candy, okay?

Maybe the Best "Dumb Criminal" Story Ever

Some idiot decided it would be a good idea to use the microwave at the local 7/11 to dry out his marijuana - even though there's a cop in the store. Meanwhile, dude's buddy is fast asleep in the car outside, big old sacks of pot sitting in plain view in the console. Way to go, losers!

Doonesbury on Blogging

The thirty-year-old comic takes a look at weblogs (click next for more related strips).

So it's Like, Ummm....Halloween and Stuff?

Odd Todd's thrilling, chilling Halloween special.

Taco Bell Offers Free Tacos for America if Angels or Giants Hit Target

In Game 5 of the World Series, the taco chain promises that if either of the contending teams' batters strike a 15-foot diameter floating target in the stands, everyone in the U.S.A. gets a free taco. Go, Barry! I want my taco!