Let's get reptilian. The American Museum of Natural History hosts a quirky, not-your-average-boring-nature-documentary site that features chapter titles like "Lizards Without Dads" and "Squirting Blood." The latter section is devoted to some of the more popular defensive techniques found among our fork-tongued friends, including the ever-popular Disappearing Act, the tenacious Too Tough To Swallow routine, and the classic When The Going Gets Tough, Jump In The Water move. The Lizards of the World multimedia tour has a great description of the Frillneck Lizard's trademark hood: "A spectacular anatomical device that, when propped open via muscles and cartilaginous spokes, unfurls like a giant beach umbrella."
Do you love words? Drop in on WordSpy, a web archive and daily mailing list "devoted to recently coined words, existing words that have enjoyed a recent renaissance, and older words that are now being used in new ways." Our subscription began with "apps-on-tap," a word describing software applications that are rented from a third party vendor, hosted and maintained over the Internet. Browse the archive for a look at coinages that haven't quite caught on, or ones that might be worth using judiciously on the right occasion like beat sweetener, fuzzword, or vibrospasm.
Gasp as you discover a bizarre array of unique, mindblending web sites! Scream as you discover that you can submit your own site and swap messages with other like-minded web enthusiasts! Emit a knowing "A Ha!" as you discover that the proprietor of this excellent collection of new and notable sites is none other than Glenn Davis, creator of the original Cool Site of the Day! "ASTOUNDINGWEB.ORG is a participatory community created to honor the best design, writing, and programming on the web. Existing awards shows and 'picks' sites have become too commercial and glitzy to do this job right." Hear, hear.
Here's a magnificent and enduring web monument to the ancient stone circles, dolmens, standing stones, cairns, barrows, and hillforts of Europe. Ten years in the making, this photo guide and megalithic resource, created by Paola Arosio and Diego Meozzi, features over 300 archaeaologic sites from the British Isles to Apulia, the heel of Italy. Take the "Ancient Stones of Scotland Tour," learn about Harold's Stones, or enjoy Quicktime VR movies of legendary sites like Long Meg and her Daughters.
Alcatraz. The Rock. Al's Place. Call it what you want, Alcatraz Island continues to draw thousands of devout pilgrims to its rocky shores. Adorned with malfunctioning audio headsets, their bellies full of Fisherman's Wharf crab cocktails, these timid souls are shepherded through the notorious halls of Cell Block D by grim federal employees, where they become dutifully creeped out. And so, day after day, a hallowed tradition of American adventure and self-discovery is reenacted. Learn more about it at this nifty web site.
Scott McCloud's newest Net venture is a 12-week online revival of his 1980s cult hit set in the "far-flung future of 1965" and featuring Zot (a.k.a. Zachary T. Paleozogt). Brand-new Zot! episodes appear every Friday -- the colorful pop-up panels require no special browser software and can be viewed as a continuous strip. McCloud once described the series as "a cross between Peter Pan, Buck Rogers and Marshall McLuhan." Parts one and two of "Hearts and Minds" won our eyeballs and our hearts.
Museum of Television & Radio: Perspectives
This worthy collection from New York's Museum of Television and Radio features clips from media celebrities and journalists discussing the creative process and the evolution of broadcast media. We began our visit by listening to several soundbyte-sized interviews with the always irreverent, always funny George Carlin, including the infamous "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television." We shifted gears and heard from the wheezy, inestimable Julia Child, doyenne of cooking shows, describing the first time she beat egg whites in a copper pot on air.
Everything we know about Reverend Billy we learned from a recent Starbucks memo to its New York employees. Who is he? "The creation of actor Bill Talen, Reverend Billy began preaching the anti-consumerist gospel in the Times Square Disney Store three years ago." What does he think of Starbucks? "Reverend Billy says that our store's 'earth-tone touchy-feeliness masks corporate ruthlessness.'" What should I do if Reverend Billy is in my store? "1. Treat him as any other customer and do not respond to his or her devotee's antics. 2. Ask him politely to leave the store. 3. Call the police, if he does not leave."