|
Home Paid Subscription Trial Sub/Unsub Netsurfer Science E-Zine Netsurfer Education E-Zine Netsurfer Books E-Zine Netsurfer Library E-Zine Netsurfer Robotics E-Zine Netsurfer Focus E-Zine |
| Blogs Invade Major Media Consciousness, Inspire Anti-Awards |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| US B&Bs |
| Google Doodles |
| Enron's New Voice Mail |
| Guess the TV Show or Movie |
| Awesome Pencil Drawings |
| Comedian Videos by Topic |
| Puzzles for the High IQ |
| 'Nother 'Nonymous Proxy |
| So That's What Sloan Is |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
CC, the World's First Genetic Copycat
CC is a copycat. Really. She's the first successful clone of a pet, a fact that has raised some mewls of protest among the animal-rights crowd. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) claims that pet cloning harms animals and will add to the pet overpopulation problem. The cloners, a cleverly named company called Genetic Savings and Clone (GSC), has expressed interest in marketing such technology to those who have recently lost a beloved pet. HSUS doesn't specify how cloning is harmful while GSC presents images of an apparently happy, healthy kitten while promising to provide updates of her condition. Score one for GSC public relations. GSC also points out that this technology may help increase populations of endangered felid species, but some argue the usefulness of such clones as cloning doesn't deepen the gene pool. Others, however, note that cheetahs, for example, are extremely genetically homogeneous yet are a viable species - cheetahs not prospering has more to do with habitat shift and poaching than with genetics. The most fascinating part of the story, to us, is why the calico donor cat's DNA produced a tiger-tabby clone. GSC explains.GSC: http://www.savingsandclone.com/
HSUS: http://www.hsus.org/ace/13214
Cheetahs: http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/biology/CBCN/genetics/dinning.htm
It's not an issue of forgetting or forgiving, it's an issue of learning. As issues of learning go, this new Web site is profound and intense, covering one of humanity's most persistent evils, racism, and specifically the Holocaust. Started in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation has accumulated some 52,000 videotaped eyewitness statements in 32 languages from people all over the world, ensuring that their stories will live forever. The foundation is now beginning to explore how best to use these powerful accounts. Currently, staff members are cataloguing. For the moment, they are discouraging requests for access by individual researchers, but testimonies can be viewed at four viewing centers in the US and one in Israel. The foundation's Web site has a teachers' guide and a teacher-training manual as well as a twice-yearly newsletter. CNET has the story. You can learn about the foundation by visiting its Web site, but to see excerpts from actual footage online you'll need a broadband connection.
CNET: http://news.com.com/2102-1023-838074.html
Shoah: http://www.vhf.org/
Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match.... Whether for a one-night stand or to find a soul mate, the use of online dating services is booming. In the UK, dating registrations exceed 100,000, and registration growth is heady all across Europe. North America has seen an even heftier surge in registrations for Web sites such as Matchmaker, Match.com, Yahoo, and even specialized sites such as JDate, for Jewish singles, and Romantic Planet, which helps users weed through profiles. It's not exactly romantic, but the lure of Net assistance is its efficiency and the power to let people reach out beyond their immediate community. Even dubious users find that the Internet can be effective at meeting that deep human need for companionship, love, friendship, sex, or romance. As one regular user put it, even when the chemistry doesn't click, you meet interesting, intelligent people this way. CNN and CNET tell the tales and link to dating sites.
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/02/13/internet.dating/index.html
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-837330.html
One of the ways big companies stay competitive is by predicting the future. This timeline, commissioned by a division of British Telecom, is meant to explore for its managers the future corporate operating environment. This is a fifth such timeline in a series and was generated by reading industry journals, surfing the Net, and talking to experts. So, what's coming up? Well, the orgasmatron should arrive by 2012. Also, the next decade or so will see the advent of space tourism, video tattoos, driverless public transport, computer doctors, viruses for electronic toys, synthetic celebrities - the list goes on. Our only gripe is that this is just a one-liner list - it would have been nicer if we could get some background on why the researchers thought these things would happen and what their sources were. Still, it's entertaining and maybe contains the seeds of your next business venture.
http://www.btexact.com/white_papers/downloads/WP106.pdf
If it weren't for the news stories, you might think this was an episode of HBO's "Six Feet Under". Ray Brent Marsh, a Georgia crematorium operator, never bothered to cremate the bodies he received; he simply stored them all over his property, indoors and out. It is a gruesome site, with many bodies decomposed to skeletal remains that will be difficult to identify. Crematoriums are poorly regulated, especially in Georgia, and the only valid criminal charges in this case are theft and fraud for Marsh's agreements to cremate bodies and failure to do so. Why didn't he fulfill the contracts? The furnace was broken. CNN has the story and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) posts updates on its investigation. Little on the Web might serve as a surrogate for dealing with bereavement, but you can learn about death online. The perky portalhood of the Frigid Fluid Co. site, at which it hawks its autopsy and embalming wares, might elicit a double-take. About.com has its Death and Dying guide and Kearl's Guide to Sociological Thanatology goes where About.com does not.
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/02/18/crematory.bodies/index.html
GEMA: http://www.gema.state.ga.us/
Frigid Fluid: http://www.frigidfluidco.com/
About.com: http://dying.miningco.com/
Kearl's: http://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/death.html
The Great Chinese Firewall and Proxy War
"What is better? Big brother Internet? Or no Internet at all?" That's the question posed by an American engineer who helped build one of the first Chinese networks. This in-depth article tackles both the recent history of Chinese Net censorship and the thorny issues of Western corporate complicity in building the Chinese content firewall. Western search engines and chat-hosting companies operating in China routinely filter queries and chat room content. There's also a sophisticated proxy war going on in China where state security is fighting the proliferation of proxy servers giving Chinese citizens access to the rest of the Net. This Weekly Standard article mentions one particularly successful piece of proxy software called Triangle Boy and calls for greater American contributions to the Chinese proxy war by supporting the dissemination of such software. It also notes that as a result of American participation in the Chinese firewall, "American business presence in China is deeply, perhaps fatally, compromised as an agent for liberalizing change....Who lost China's Internet? Well, we did."Weekly Standard: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/922dgmtd.asp
Triangle Boy: http://www.safeweb.com/tboy_whitepaper.html
The problem of spam routed through open relays in Asia has become so bad lately that many sysadmins are blocking all e-mail from entire Asian countries. This Wired article notes that the problem is impacting many legitimate users in China, Taiwan, and Korea, essentially cutting them off from the Western Net - an ironic situation in the face of widespread official Net censorship in that part of the world. Western sysadmin complaints are falling on deaf ears in the East, and in some cases even running into cultural and language problems. One Hong Kong computer store owner - whose e-mail address has apparently not yet found its way onto get-rich-quick spam lists - says, "It's a sign of respect that someone sends you an electric business card. It means he wants you as a customer." Wired's got the details.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50455,00.html
Ohno Threats Crash USOC Olympic Web Server
US short track skater Apolo Anton Ohno won gold this week in the 1,500-meter event after the disqualification of South Korean skater Kim Dong-sung, who actually crossed the line first. This referee call was apparently unpopular in Korea, where they take short track skating very seriously. A flood of 16,000 e-mails, mostly from South Korea, took down the US Olympic Committee server for about nine hours. The USOC has turned over the threatening e-mail to the FBI.http://www.msnbc.com/news/712948.asp
The 47 "Major" Comments on the Microsoft Anti-Trust Settlement
As we reported in NSD 8.05, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) received some 30,000 public comments on the Microsoft anti-trust settlement. Although by law the DoJ must publish all received comments, it has released only 47 of them, those it has deemed "major" enough to warrant public view. We've seen public comments that seemed to have just as much substance as these, and we're left scratching our heads over the criteria used to decide whether a comment was "major" or not. Regardless, here's the list.http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/ms-major.htm
Microsoft Media Player Violates Privacy Policy, Tracks Your Viewing Habits
Microsoft's latest version of Media Player logs the CDs and DVDs that users play. Microsoft's original privacy policy did not inform users that their usage would be tracked with a unique identification number or that Media Player would log into Microsoft servers to download song and movie info, such as titles. This server connection effectively allows Microsoft to track your viewing habits and possibly associate them with an email address. Additionally, the info is stored in a log file on each user's computer. A Microsoft spokesman said the company has no plans to act on its customers' viewing habits, but could change its mind. In response to violating its own stated policy, Microsoft moved quickly not to resolve the privacy concerns for which its software is responsible, but to change its privacy statement. We recommend that if you care about your privacy, you either not use the player or block the Microsoft media servers at your firewall. Richard Smith has the technical details, CNet has the story.Smith: http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/wmp8dvd.htm
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-841766.html
How Much Should Webcasters Pay? The US Copyright Office Proposal
An arbitration panel created by the US Copyright Office has released a proposal for fees to be levied on audio webcasters. So far, this is just a recommendation and contains many provisions which are likely to be fiercely opposed by the small but vocal webcasting industry. Among the most contentious proposals would make broadcast fees retroactive, per-listener-based payments, and would require broadcasters to report listener data to the copyright holders. The document is likely to frame the debate on the future of webcasting in the US. CNET has the story, while the Radio and Internet Newsletter (RAIN) has industry-focused coverage.Proposal: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/carp/webcasting_rates.html
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-841612.html
RAIN: http://www.kurthanson.com/index.asp
NextBank Closure Domino Effect Hits Web Sites
Found by US banking regulators to be "operating in an unsafe and unsound manner", the online NextBank was summarily shut down and its assets moved to FDIC receivership. This effectively truncated NextCard, which owns NextBank and which offered Visa cards through the bank. NextCard has stopped offering cards - although current holders of NextCard are unaffected, according to a Visa spokesman - and, more importantly for the webmaster community, it has advised some 100,000 Web sites that it can no longer pay referral commissions and that NextCard ads and links should be removed. For a number of these sites, that's a hard punch straight to the breadbasket, as affiliate programs are a major revenue source. NextCard was one of the best payers - at this time last year, it was the number one Web advertiser in the financial services industry, signing up around 12,000 new accounts each month through the affiliate referral program and paying affiliates $20 to $60 per sign-up. Clearly, a lot of people at small sites are going to feel the hit, and this CNET story describes another data point in the avalanche of non-advertising that has washed over most of the dotcom world.NextCard: http://www.nextcard.com/
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-837659.html
Well, we all saw this coming.... Movie88.com, the Taiwanese site which offered numerous streamed movies for $1, has been shut down. The site originally contended that it complied with Taiwanese copyright law, but this week it was blocked without warning by its ISP, HiNet. The shutdown was apparently done without any legal documents being served and Movie88 is rather pissed about it. Conversely, the Motion Picture Association of America and its CEO, Jack Valenti, are delighted. Some people have insinuated that HiNet took an under-the-table payoff from Hollywood, but there's no evidence for it.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-840275.html
Hypernets: Good News for Gnutella
The Gnutella network has been criticized because mathematical analysis seems to indicate that it would not scale well. In this paper, Neil Gunther shows that an alternative interconnection schema, called a hypercube, can easily scale up to millions of hosts. The analysis suggests that a 20-dimensional hypercube can easily scale to over two million hosts while requiring each host to maintain only 20 open connections to other hosts in the network. Gunther includes numerous links to related research. While there's some high-school math here, the paper is reasonably understandable by anybody interested in peer-to-peer networking.http://www.perfdynamics.com/Papers/Gnews.html
Amazon Enters the Wedding Registry Business
Getting married? Want to make it easier for your friends to buy you what you want? Lots of retailers offer online access to gift registries, but here comes Amazon. It has added a wedding registry feature. It's not a complete wedding planning site such as that offered by the Knot, but it is simple to use and easy to set up. Even if you're not getting married, the list of the most requested gifts is quite revealing. Number one is a KitchenAid mixer; number three is a PlayStation 2. Go figure.Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/885446/ref=gw_hp_ls_1_4/002-0574168-5340069
Knot: http://www.theknot.com/
This week we published a special issue of our Netsurfer Science e-zine. It's all about the science of the Winter Olympics. We get into the obvious physics and biomechanics of various sports, but we also look at topics such as timing the races, preparing the venues (why is some ice better then other other ice?), environmental effects of some sports, and the ever-contentious topics of performance enhancing drugs. It's one of our better site collections if we do say so ourselves.
NSS: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/
Legos which talk TCP/IP, robotic surgery, robots passing a torch around, which naturally leads to a robobiatholon and a mobot slalom, stairstepping, the mysterious Golden Cheese, and of course, the stars of Robotica. Yep, it's another issue of our newest e-zine Netsurfer Robotics. Check it out - the subscription is quite free.
NSR 01.04: http://www.netsurf.com/nsr/nsr.01.04.html
Subscribe: http://www.netsurf.com/nsr/subscribe.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Blogs Invade Major Media Consciousness, Inspire Anti-Awards
Wired writes about the enormous success of blogging in Web culture, noting the attention that blogging has recently received in popular media. The article quotes some numbers, saying that the total number of blogs out there may exceed a half-million. Blogger, the blog creation site, says 41,000 people initiated new blogs in January. The article also discusses a provocative column by PC Magazines's John Dvorak which criticized the general lack of quality in blogging, a critique which naturally sparked counter-flames from the blogging community. Not surprisingly, somebody came up with the Anti-Bloggies, awards to lampoon some of the blogging excesses - most depressing blog, smallest type, color scheme most likely to cause epileptic seizures, most caffeinated blogger. It's a riot.Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,50443,00.html
Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/
Dvorak: http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s%253D1493%2526a%253D21865,00.asp
Anti-Bloggies: http://www.antibloggies.com/
|
Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the image or title to order at a hefty discount from our affiliate Amazon.com, and send a few pennies our way as well.
 For more selections, check out the Netsurfer Library at http://www.netsurf.com/nsl/ |
Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web
The Book of Assassins: A Biographical Dictionary from Ancient Times to the Present
The Peshwar Lancers
The Longest JourneySURFING SITES
Public Debut of the Computer Mouse and More: Historic Video Clips
Dec. 9, 1968, Douglas Engelbart and a group of 17 researchers presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, which they had been working on since 1962. This historic presentation included the public debut of the computer mouse, demonstrations of word processing concepts like cut and paste, text and graphic hyperlinking in documents, multiple-screen displays, a demonstration of groupware document editing, and much more. Just about every aspect of information manipulation and display used on your computer today can trace its roots to this demonstration. The original presentation has been edited into 35 RealVideo segments available at the MouseSite. This truly historic video record is well worth watching.http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/MouseSitePg1.html
The Rosetta Project's Language Archive
Thanks, in part, to mass media, many or most existing languages may fade into oblivion in the next 100 years. This may not bother you if you speak English or Chinese, but if your heritage and sense of self are reflected in Igo, say, or if you're a scholar in need of linguistic background, the Rosetta Project is for you. This is "a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to develop a contemporary version of the historic Rosetta Stone." Its goal is to archive texts, audio files, and other materials in three formats (including "a micro-etched nickel disk with 2,000-year life expectancy") for posterity. The Web site solicits reviews and contributions from anyone with expertise in language. Based in San Francisco, the Rosetta Project could be a great online field trip for students. You can easily browse current holdings by language name, family, or country. With a few clicks, for example, we learned that five languages are spoken in Aruba and 13 in Fiji. This site makes such comparisons fairly easy. Our guess is that the project, and maybe its Web site, too, will last longer than some of the languages it lists.http://www.rosettaproject.org:8080/live/
You won't believe the positions. It's just furniture, regular ordinary furniture. You won't believe the acts. This site's erotic furniture photography really stretches the decency envelope. No matter what your taste is, you'll find furniture doing it here. View the first furniture porn movie. Can it stop the recession by itself? The folks who have created this swamp of furniture depravity actually have a serious purpose - free speech - well disguised by some of the funniest and sickest photography you're likely to stumble across outside real porn sites. Best of all, this site is free.
http://www.furnitureporn.com/
Things His Girlfriend and Millington Have Argued About
Reading how Millington describes life with his frau, you get the feeling that as the crankiest couple in the entire world, these two must have a good sense of humor, are too lazy to get out of the relationship, or they're having themselves some great sex. This little Anglo-German love-logue is like a microcosm of the worst fights from "Roseanne" and twice as entertaining. For example: "Just for reference; if Margret returns from having her hair cut and says 'What do you think?' and you reply 'I'd love you whatever your hair was like.', well, that's very much The Wrong Answer, OK?" We liked it, but then we've been known to be trashy too sometimes.http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mil.millington/things.html
When the talk at work gets geeky, do you get lost? The Glossary of Computer and Internet Terms can bring you back into the picture. The extensive word list focuses on Internet and personal computer terminology, as opposed to, say, mainframe terms or systems management jargon. It's complete and accurate. Navigation is simple enough that you can use the glossary with equal ease for single word look-ups or as a study guide. Also available on the site are a list of e-mail and online chat acronyms, a list of emoticons, and a coherent explanation of domain name suffixes.
http://www.sharpened.net/glossary/index.php
So alter-egos are sexy and superheroes are sexy and wearing clingy Spandex outfits in primary colors outside the gym really hits the spot. Agreed? So now you can be your own Frankenstein with HeroMachine, an evil overlord creation that allows you to create your own SuperYou, a fantasy You, or a basketball uniform. Make 'em lame, make 'em tame, make 'em wear dopey outfits - it's your subconscious at work here. There's something about being able to choose your belt, headgear, and companion that really turned our frown upside down.
http://www.heromachine.com/heromachine.html
"What in the World?" Quiz Show Goes Online
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology ran a show in the 1950s and 1960s called "What in the World?", which it called "a superb blending of the academic and the entertaining." It blended fun and weird in the pre-Springer era, and challenged the knowledge of a panel of experts. The experts were asked to guess what each presented piece was, where it came from, how old it was, and how it was used. Objects were selected from the museum's storerooms and had never before been seen by the panel. The museum has now resurrected the game for online play for anyone. Certainly, you'll feel less pressure than the panelists, but maybe you also have fewer nerd-smarts. Look at the chosen object and see if you'd have had the guts to get in front of the camera. Or wear those suits.http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Games/whatintheworld.html
You know those hand-scribbled or pre-printed signs that crop up on lampposts and fences like great patches of mushrooms overnight? "Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days!" "Make $1000 a week working from home!" "WWW.Tell your boss to take a Hike!!" Urban avengers have taken it upon themselves to rid our streets of this nuisance, and their online rallying point is CAUSS, which stands for Citizens Against Ugly Street Spam. CAUSS has areas specifically set aside about local codes regarding signage on public property and the enforcement of those codes. For instance, in some areas homebuilder signs may be allowed by ordinance. CAUSS focuses on teaching its members how to remove the signage safely, legally, and effectively.
http://www.causs.org/
Think Homer Simpson, or Hank Hill (even if the fuel of preference is automotive ether and not propane). This is your basic, Joe-Shmoe, good-time rock-'n'-roll, drink-some-beer-and-fire-off-a-spud-cannon site. A spud cannon? Yep - an easy-to-construct device for turning your ordinary garden-variety tuber into an efficient, high-velocity projectile. Heck, who knew that some places classify these things as firearms? It's not like you build them and set them off to kill anybody (intentionally, anyway). You can score the plans for the thing here, along with a selection of amusing photos and a bunch of dead links to what was purported to be odd news. A couple of well done rants and some useless product reviews round things out. Chances are, you won't spend a lot of time here, as the place could use some dusting and straightening. But during that 15-minute coffee break that never affords enough time for you to actually go and get coffee - hey, check out the spud cannon.
http://www.averagejoeshmoe.com/
If you're addicted to the intimate little "find yourself" kinds of quizzes that populate the pages of such periodicals as Redbook or Cosmo, then you just may lose, rather than find, yourself in this site's content. It's all about quizzes. And free chocolate. And a conspicuous absence of beer and sports - which leads us to the inescapable conclusion that this site is primarily geared toward the testosterone-deficient among us. And whoo-whee, what a lot of pop-up ads!
http://quizstop.com/
The History and Artifacts of Coffee Brewing
Tired of the same old coffee? With devotion to fine taste imbued with the sophistication of Royal Coffee Maker's How It Works, you can impress fellow lovers of the jumpstart black brew by adding liqueurs (amaretto, for example, or Drambuie), spices (such as anise, cloves, or peppermint), and syrups to your favorite grind. Ah, but there's a catch: for best results, you really need a balancing siphon, various models of which Royal Coffee Maker happens to sell. While you're agonizing over the choices (classic palladium? modern copper? deluxe gold?), you can pick up a bit of background on the History of the Coffeemaker page, which reminds us, with an assist from London's Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum) that over 350 years coffee has become "a worldwide commodity market second in importance only to oil." Clearly, your choice of pot is important. Eschew cheap hardware. Live a little. Go for the gold. History is on your side.http://www.royalcoffeemaker.com/howitworks.html
Massage Free.com offers animated computer graphic instruction on virtually every massage technique. The animations are easy to follow and while nowhere near as satisfying as the real thing, give a good feel for the wide range of massage techniques. The site is valuable for anyone who's never had the pleasure of the wonderful relaxation - both physical and mental - of massage but is considering the experience. Veteran massagees can use the site to explore unfamiliar techniques. Our reviewer actually found the site relaxing and stress reducing, although not as much as a real massage. You may even get a kick out some of the computer-generated nudity.
http://www.massagefree.com/index.html
Rules to Just About Every Game but Double Crabbit
Veteran gamers may know the rules by heart, but what do you do in a dispute? Some read the rules. Others have no rules. Still others misplace the rules.... Now, for more than 100 board games, rules are available online at Game Cabinet. The rules here are text reproductions of public domain or commercial originals, with graphics where appropriate and/or available. You'll find many oldies but goodies here, such as backgammon, Clue, and Monopoly (of course), but you can also find rules for games like Candy Land, Donut Disaster, and Mastermind. If you can't view the site during a game, whip out printouts from Game Cabinet to prove your honesty and tact in face of faulty memory or ignorance. Cheaters and fudgers, beware.http://www.centralconnector.com/GAMES/GameCab.html
ONLINE TRAVEL
If you don't feel like flying but still want to get away from it all, maybe this is the time for a bed-and-breakfast vacation. Most B&Bs, even in the heart of a city, make you feel like you've stepped back in time, and USinns.com makes them easy to find. It boasts a database of over 25,000 B&Bs and similar lodgings that cater to the small-town taste. Once you choose a state in their search function, you can look for such amenities as an in-room fireplace or a pet-friendly atmosphere. In addition to finding someplace to stay, the B&B-inclined can find related materials at the site. The recipe section would be more useful if it were searchable multiple ways. For instance, what if instead of knowing you wanted to bring an appetizer to a housewarming party, you knew you wanted to bring a dish from a local B&B? The owners seemingly fund the site by convincing innkeepers to upgrade their listings. If they stay afloat, this could turn into a great resource for vacationers all over North America.http://usinns.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Google likes to add little comic drawings to its logo during special events, and we've noticed its current Winter Olympic theme in particular. You can view an archive of Google Doodles at the URL below - the Winter Olympic doodles can be reached through the Holiday Logos link.http://www.google.com/doodle.html
Yes, it's a joke.
http://www.witcity.com/enron/index.htm
It's weird how many shows and movies we thought we knew but of which we actually lacked detailed knowledge. Is there a medical student in "That Girl"? How old were those kids in "21 Jump Street"? The only definite we had was that we're spending too much time on this game.
http://www.guessthename.com/
Most of us can't draw a straight line with a pencil, let alone do intricate texturing and shading. But Lyle Trimmer does it freehand, just pencil on paper. And his cowboy and Bible drawings really have to be seen to be believed. Even then, you may find it unbelievable.
http://www.lyletrimmer.com/ltd/
Find a comedian, find a topic, and away you go. The only problem is that the comedians are limited, and we weren't going to choose Chris Rock. More choice and we would have been as happy as pigs in mud. As it was, we were pigs in dirty water, thinking about copyright issues.
http://laffsite.com/
Thirty serious brain twisters live at the IQed! site by Lloyd King, the author of "Puzzles for the High IQ". Secure your thinking cap with some metal bolts, and prepare to be challenged. As an added plus, every week a new "Why didn't I think of that?" puzzle appears, to keep you on your toes.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/atalanta/
Concern about your privacy is not evidence of paranoia. Where you go and who you are should not be easily retained, studied, or sold. Yet much online technology is configured to learn exactly that. GoProxy acts as your go-between, encrypting everything so only you know what you've typed and where you've gone.
http://www.goproxy.com/
CORRECTIONS
In NSD 8.05's "Little Fimo Clay Figures Are People, Too", we expressed puzzlement at just who or what Sloan is. A Canadian named Kristy informed us that Sloan is a popular Canadian rock band. Well, we've heard of the Kim Band, but not Sloan - but Canadians never lie, eh?http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Music/Bands_and_Artists/S/Sloan/