So it’s not likely, but one day you might find yourself facing a shark, or be trapped in quicksand, or stuck in an aeroplane with a pilot who’s just died at the controls. Luckily for you, you took the time out to read through the expert solutions to these and other life-threatening situations at Worst Case Scenario: www.worstcasescenarios.com
And as Zimbabwe moves ever closer towards civil war, thanks in part to our leaders’ policy of new-style ‘constructive engagement’ which has been keeping that country afloat, a site to keep an eye on for ongoing information that isn’t pleasant reading, is The Commercial Farmers Union.
Then take a look at the daily list of atrocities, and fairly frightened readers’ letters and other material, at ZW News. (If any readers have any useful Zimbabwean homepages, please email them in.)
You’ve heard of the phrase ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’ – well, this next site features a man whose insurance doesn’t cover the accident he had to his feet. And because he wants to take advantage of new prosthetic devices in order to walk again – he intends to cut his feet off live on the Internet. Go take a look at Cut Off My Feet!
Then before you start thinking at least we’re okay, try a page which takes a rather right-wing look at South Africa, but which still contains interesting perspectives on a variety of issues from the ongoing killing of farmers, through to the TRC. Bear in mind we’re a democracy, and free speech is a right, despite the ANC trying to label dissenting views as ‘hate-speech’ – as you take a look at Free Clive Derby Lewis: www.freeclive.com.
Then there’s the amazingly useful site that allows you to build your own cow, specifying how many legs, heads, udders… fiddle with it till it looks like all the other cattle that roam near Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, and Build Your Own Cow.
Having irritated a wide variety of political viewpoints so far, let’s move further afield. For info above and beyond the mass media’s daily reports on the Middle East, be prepared for a lot of useful reading, as well as a rather different view to what you may have thought was the ‘truth’ – at Origins of the Palestine-Israel Conflict. Then for more links and reading material, try Arab Gateway as well as Palestine.
But the Internet isn’t only about digging out differing views on reality, there are also lots of useful sites to browse through. For instance, how about a site that lets you create a fart sound, and mail it to someone? Now that’s useful! Create a Fart!: www.createafart.com
For a look at what harsh criticism of the press is like, when done by the press itself – take a deep breath and dive into Media Whores.
Months after the pirated version of the film 13 Days appeared online, the local distributors are finally releasing it here. It’s an interesting look at the showdown between the US and the former USSR over nuclear weapons in Cuba, in the standoff known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of thermonuclear war. Why not take a listen to the original recordings of conversations between JFK and staff in the White House, at the Cuban Missile Crisis Audio Recordings.
Now there’s another attempt to explain how the pyramids were built, and this one while seemingly crazy at first glance, actually has some rather sweet engineering principles behind it. Consider the idea of kites being used to lift the large blocks you’ve always seen being pushed by slaves on wooden rollers in those Hollywood epics we all grew up on. Try Pyramidiots: www.pyramidiots.org.
Decidedly unprogressive in many ways, the pulp-novels and magazines of the 40s and 50s detective fiction genre still have a thriving fan base online. For a collection of covers from these post WW2 penny dreadfuls, take a browse through the gallery at Lurid Paperback Cover of the Week!
Until the next time, if Robert Mugabe doesn’t get me.
Ian Fraser is a playwright, author, comedian, conspiracy nut, old-time radio collector and self-confessed data-junkie. Winner of numerous Vita and Amstel Awards, he’s been an Internet addict and games-fanatic since around 1995, when the Internet began to make much more sense than theatre.