Web links: October 2005

• Telecrapper 2000 - a computerized system designed to intercept incoming Telemarketing calls on the first ring, and then carry on a virtual conversation with the telemarketer.
• International High IQ society - for those of you that never got over leaving school and sitting tests :P
• A cheap shot - A cheap shot at the texts/doctrines of organised religions and religious fanatics. Nonetheless, *mildly* amusing.
• Mighty's fast food maybe the idea of healthy fast food restaurants that serve meals made from fresh, natural and environmentally friendly ingredients and puts profits back into the betterment of the world is not just some on-happy-drugs persons dream. You never know, the idea might even catch on... (*shrugs*, I like the idea of good healthy eating becoming as accessible and easy for the masses.) [See also: Feed me better campaign, Google Search Results]
• European Countries - a game to help cure the geographically impaired.
• Site Map Protocol - allows you to intelligently inform search engines about pages on your site, how often they are [on average] updated and their importance. Useful for website owners/managers.
• Family ritual - On June 17th, every year, the family goes through a private ritual: we photograph ourselves to stop a fleeting moment, the arrow of time passing by. The squishy part of me loves this! [idea/concept]
• Time Zone Check - Get the standard time or daylight savings time for anywhere!
• Is Your Printer Spying On You? - Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer - and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of "Alias," right? Unfortunately, the scenario isn't fictional. In a purported effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information.
• <pointless rant>I'm all for the idea of a nice dinner out *minus* games and gimmicks (shudder!) OR... what's wrong with the hens get-together ideas mentioned on this site (as opposed to the shopping section - ugh!) such as camel rides, quad bikes, wine tours, dolphin watching, horse riding, go-carting, water skiiing, scuba diving, sailing, host a murder dinner, house boat, jet boating, paint ball, a day at the races, beauty and health spa... for goodness sake, even shopping, if you must. Sure beats the typical quasi-penis-convention, hens (shudder) games that seem to be the norm.</pointless rant>
• Connect the dots - game. (logic/math). Connect the dots to make more boxes than the computer.
• Anxiety culture - webzine - ideas, gimmicks, quirkiness for the crazy, paranoid, work-obsessed times we live in.
• The Official God FAQ - Folks, please remember this is humour... eeek! I can see steam coming out of your ears... bye. *runs away*
• Drawing from start to end - *shrugs* flash movie showing a drawing in various stages.
• Reading test - blah blah, you like me have prolly seen it squillions of times before (I exaggerate to clarify) but it's still kinda cool and it hasn't been included in friendly spam yet, so...
• Jumping Cats! - pictures of jumping cats. It made me smile. Discovered via StumbleUpon
• Pavarotti in Melbourne - Not so great. I pretty much agree with the review. Thank grud I only paid ~$150 to see him instead of ~$800. We can say we were conducted by Pavarotti though :) Ava Maria worked. Simona Todaro who didn't get any billing (even in small print) on the tickets was fantastic.
• Cutsey Wootsey Teddy Bear - A flash thingo. I love it when they talk so cutesy. Just want to give them a big hug. Reminds me of a friend of mine.
• Bubble Project - I printed 15,000 of these bubble stickers and place them on top of ads all over New York City. Passersby fill them in. I go back and photograph the results.
• Flying Toasters Screensaver - a week or so a friend asked if I knew anywhere to find good screensavers. I looked blank and replied no. THEN, while surfing digg.com I saw a link to the oh-so-retro flying toasters screensaver and so sent it to the said friend. In mentioning this to another friend, I was forced to send the link on to them as well. Thus I am now putting it up here so if there's more of you out there you can just download and install it quietly - no need to tell me.
• Blonde Star - we're always here, because you're always blonde. (movie)
• Mother-Daughter phone dialogue - I got this joke via email as 'the Greek Mother' and found it on da 'Net as the 'Jewish Mother'...
• Sorry Gotta Go - When you need to get off the phone... (inspiration is here!)
• Tokyo Flash Watches - the morse code watch, radio active reactor watch, the pimp watch and lots of other errrr... unusual watches. (I know lots of people who have watch obsessions so my interest in this link makes sense when put in context).
• Online Petition: Stop this cruelty! - The RSPCA is shocked and appalled at the use of live dogs and cats as bait in shark fishing, reported recently on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean.
• Earth Day Footprint Quiz - Take the quiz and discover the size of your ecological footprint. How many planets would we need if everyone lived like you. [Related information]. Same... but different: Ecological footprint calculator
• Fast Facts / Quick Actions: Consumption - Interesting factlets about human consumption and its affect on our environment and others.
• Newish Google Stuff Blog Search, Online RSS Feed/News Reader
• RAF officer faces jail over 'illegal war' - by David Leppard
• Seven things: a meme - from someone's personal website/blog. Lists in sets of seven including, 'things I plan to do before I die', 'things i can do', 'things I can't do', 'things that attract me', 'celebrity crushes' and 'things I say most often'. [mercuryfern's lists]
• Metal Mickey Official Website - Metal Mickey first appeared in 1978, he then made various guest appearances and finally became the first Robot sitcom actor.
• 10 reasons why gay marriage should be illegal - Ok, so it's lame, but I laughed :)
• G.I.'s and Syrians in Tense Clashes on Iraqi Border - by James Risen and David E. Sanger
• Torture and Misery in the Name of Freedom - by Harold Pinter
• The Best Party of Allah - one Australian's view. (it disturbs me a little, but I was sent it so here 'tis)
• Esquire wikis article on Wikipedia - When A.J. Jacobs decided to do an article about the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, he took an innovative approach: He posted a crummy, error-laden draft of the story to the site.
• Steelgirl's Carotene Experiment - Can your skin turn orange if you eat too many carrots? We plan to answer that question as I go on a carrot diet for thirty days. heh! Yes it does the lady who worked next door to me drank 3 glasses of carrot juice to tan her skin. She was ugly ugly fake tan orange glow
• The Blue Senator - He's permanently given his skin a grey-bluish tinge brought about by using colloidal silver.
• Photo - uh... ho made sausauge. shrugs.
• Teleportation Now - I haven't had time to look yet. The site says: TeleportationNow is a network of technical individuals dedicated to advocating and promoting the development of practical teleportation technology.
• ebay: leather pants - it's definitely worth scrolling down to read the sellers commentary and then worth scrolling even further to the seller's payment instructions. I was amused anyway... thanks N!
• Work Choices - website for Australian Government information on changes to industrial/work place reform.
• Bush will veto anti-torture law after Senate revolt - by Francis Harris in Washington.
• Robot Camel Jockeys debut in Arab Gulf - (article/news) - Well, this is one way of responding to children's rights abuses in the Gulf states.
• Google: Landmark terminology/jargon, Enpsychlopedia: Landmark Education, Wikipedia: Landmark Education
• In Brief: Voices 'drove Bush to it'
• Rocket Boom - Rocketboom is a three minute daily videoblog based in New York City. [Smickles says: I don't get it. grudknows says: me either. Smickles says: Maybe we're not geeky enough.]
• Second Life is a virtual world - a 3D online persistent space totally created and evolved by its users. (It sounds very 'Snow Crash' to me). Other metaverses include: There, Active Worlds, The Palace - and - there's also an open source metaverse project a happenin'.
• The Great Los Angeles Panorama - picture/photo. spanning a length of 15 miles from Santa Monica to Downtown Los Angeles, with the Hollywood sign almost 9 miles away, Santa Monica downtown and beach more than 7 miles away, Downtown L.A. about 7 miles away, and L.A. county's tallest mountain, Mount Baldy, about 45 miles away.
• Battle of the giants: python bursts eating gator - news story from SMH. (hmmmm... I'm a little skeptical, (it wouldn't be the first time urban myth made news) but snopes says it's true and goes on to say, "Three other gator-python encounters have been documented in the past three years, all of which ended with the gator's successfully escaping from or killing its serpentine attacker.")
• Pizza fork and cutter - just another weird product for sale that someone sent me :)
• The Maine Lobster Game - Fishing in a bar or restaurant is entertaining and challenging.
• The Internet is for porn - song, quite cute really... very sesame street.
• Claim to shame - win tickets to see white stripes in belgium on 30 October (entries by 6 oct 2005).
• css filters (css hacks) - from centricle I like this :)
• Failure - Try typing ‘failure' into google and then hit the ‘I'm feeling lucky' button ... (The result is quite obvious really, though it probably won't last long... some one will complain!)
• Wet Ink Submissions - Wet Ink is a new Adelaide-based magazine of writing that is currently seeking submissions. Short fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and general-interest essays are all welcome. Submissions from new and emerging writers are particularly encouraged.
• SOS After Katrina - A joint effort to provide real assistance, support and help rebuild after Katrina.
• haiku secrets - a new site dedicated to haiku poems. The guidelines for submitting your own haiku read: In the interest of artistic thought and process there are little to no guidelines for posting to Haiku Secrets. Traditionally, haikus are ashort poem of 3 lines in a 5-7-5 syllable format. Contemporary haikus can be any three line short poem. Please respect any copyrighted material and only submit original work. Happy Haiku!.
• It's CJ - a personal site, i think... interesting (is that the right word?) uh links including 'Young, Beautiful Lesbians Deserve Equal Treatment Under the Law', 'CJ's Protest and Suicide Supply Center'.
• Open Content Alliance - Interesting project - F.Y.I. g
• Regional Youth Peace Summit In Asia-Pacific - find out all about the summit and how you can get involved. Email: moc.liamtoh@PAISPYR (*).
• superhero creation - The only convincing superhero I could create I called 1970s Man, mostly because of the available colours, though he did go through a fairly solid Mr Camp phase, ripe with character development potential, when I experimented with a police hat and leather straps. See, fun for the whole family! Involving yet useless. Enjoy. - Jonathan [grudknows created Razor Toe]
• Walter Wolfgang: 'We have been lied to about the war. I dared to speak the truth' - article/news/opinion