A new film on the way is the amazing-to-look-at Disney flick ‘Monsters.Inc’ – created by the geniuses at Pixar Studios. The Disney flick ships with one of Pixar’s insanely funny shorts – if you have the bandwidth, take a look at the online samples of their short films at Pixar Studios.
It must be wonderful to live in a normal civilized society – as opposed to here, where the ‘African Renaissance’ has become a handy camouflage for social anarchy. Take a look at the clubs, pubs and bars people can walk to in London, and ask yourself when you were last able to stroll around any city in this country: Late Night London.
If you saw Blade Runner, then you had a glimpse into this late sci-fi writer’s brilliantly peculiar and strange mind. Go take a look at the fabulous and neurotic world of Philip K Dick.
It’s hard to believe, but there are still people around who think the universe was made by some sort of supernatural entity in order to test out theories of good and evil. For the rest of us, there’s a great online exhibit detailing the slow painful process of evolution. (Or as Bill Hicks put it – "Face it, we’re a virus with shoes.") Crawl out of the primordial ooze towards Evolution.
Curious as to which government branch has been swine enough to merit winning a ‘big brother’ award, by virtue of its attempts to snoop on the citizenry? Go find out all the attempts of covert surveillance at The Big Brother Awards.
There’s a strange fascination online for the ‘stickman’ stick figure genre – ranging from downloadable films, through to full homemade games. Browse through Stick Death!
Then take a look at an online stick figure game called The Way of the Exploding Stick.
Look to the skies time. This year’s Leonid Meteor shower has arrived – and depending on weather and time of arrival, could be worth tearing yourself away from the TV or PC to go watch. For info, visit NASA, Sky & Telescope and Ancient Sightings.
Star Wars fans weren’t that happy with George Lucas’ The Phantom Menace. So rather than complain, they did the next best thing – they re-edited the film themselves, and released their own version (the ‘special correctors edition’). Currently there are a number of fan-edited versions floating around, freaking out both Lucas and the lawyers. More at Salon and Phantom Edit.
Geek stuff. So you think you have a fairly nifty computer, do you? Why not take the acid test and find out for sure, instead of relying on what the salesman told you. Test your PC online at PC PitStop.
But let’s try out something more exciting, at least to the foot-fetish-fans among you. Something to look at if you’ve really exhausted all the things that the Internet has to offer is a site that celebrates The Century in Shoes!
Or even better, and equally useful – how about a Barcelona taxi driver with a webcam in his car? Don’t worry, you’re able to book his taxi online. Try Fransisco Dugo!
And then, if you had the weird idea of walking around safely in the country of your birth, this next site might even provide some useful tools – seeing as the police and the government won’t protect you – so check out the devices to eliminate muggers at The Historic Weapons Collection.
Sick of wildlife pictures? Starting to develop sympathy with people who suggest paving the Kruger National Park as a way of stopping all those wildlife documentaries? Me too. Take a look at a collection of the world’s best magazine photographs – which also make for some great PC wallpaper, by the way – Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards.
Until the next time, if Creationists, nature fans and the police don’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.