One two three four five sources working overtime

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My sources of cool sites have sent me a whole bunch of interesting stuff lately. I don't have time to list it all, but a few quick items:

  • The Big Myth, a compendium of creation stories from around the world, animated in Flash, but static-text HTML teaching supplements. Way cool, even if the narration is kind of monotonic. Requires Flash.
  • Villainsupply.com's Lairs and Bases section. I forget whether I've pointed to this before; it's reasonably well known. But fun. "Helpful Tip #12: ALWAYS KILL OFF YOUR CONSTRUCTION CREW ONCE YOUR LAIR IS COMPLETE!"
  • When you use Google to search a Usenet newsgroup, Google highlights your search terms in multiple colors in the postings it finds. Those wacky folks on rec.arts.ascii and alt.ascii-art are using this fact to get Google to color in their text-based art. For example, you can search for aa ae ao ea ee eo bart (and click the result named BART) to get a color portrait of Bart Simpson.
  • They're having more ballot trouble in Florida; the gubernatorial ballot said to "vote for one pair," meaning a governor and a lt. governor pair, but the lieutenant governor candidates haven't been named yet, so the "pairs" consisted of a governor candidate name and the text "Not Yet Designated" (which is then repeated in Spanish). The helpful folks at Fark have been providing PhotoShopped suggested improvements to this ballot, some of which are rather entertaining (though some are just dumb).
  • Dept. of High Kitsch: a video clip of Leonard Nimoy singing "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins," accompanied by dancing young people wearing pointy ears and big "What Is a Hobbit?" buttons. Rarely has one encountered such a remarkable display of kitsch. And to make matters worse, the tune is mildly catchy. If it runs through your head for hours after viewing, don't come crying to me. (Some people might actually like this song, but then some people (I shall refrain from naming any embarrassing names) like "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" from the Rankin-Bass LotR movie.)
  • Finally, if you don't have enough flying things in your home or workplace, check out Backyard Artillery, where you can purchase such fine products as a working rubber-band machine gun (apparently can fire up to 144 rubber bands in rapid smooth succession) and a watch with a tiny catapult built into it.

Thanks for Charles N., David V., Joe R., Will Q. (twice), and Charles D. for the pointers.

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