************************************************************** * * * CYBERSPACE * * A biweekly column on net culture appearing * * in the Toronto Sunday Sun * * * * Copyright 2000 Karl Mamer * * Free for online distribution * * All Rights Reserved * * Direct comments and questions to: * * * * * ************************************************************** Leah's Picks My friend Leah in Edmonton is endlessly emailing me cool sites. Now lots of people email me "cool" sites, but like those rarely amusing jokes people pass around or virus-laden EXE files of cartoon Elves mooning Santa, I usually just delete them after doing a quick visual scan for the phrase "free food". Leah, however, has a talent for finding wacky sites. Her role in the production of this column goes uncredited. Lots of times she uncovers a site that gets me thinking about a column idea. Other times I just chortled and bookmark the site for future reference. I thought it high time to give her some recognition and share some of the neater sites she's been sending me over the past couple years. The Case Files of the Fake Detective www.lairofluxlucre.com/detective/ Okay. I have to warn you there's nudity at this site. In the six years I've been writing this column, I don't think I've ever intentionally mentioned a site with nudity but I'm going to make an exception. So bear with me. Ever since the invention of the Internet, scanners, Photoshop, and Gillian Anderson, people have been taking the heads of celebrities, sticking them on the bodies of porn stars, and then posting them to net.news. Oddly enough, there are some people who actually fall for it. The Fake Detective site exposes faked celebrity nudes ranging from Tori Amos to Catherine Zeta-Jones. Even Pam "Mork & Mindy" Dawber is not left visually unmolested. Really, the government shouldn't be going after Microsoft, it should be going after these lamers. The Big Mac Index www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/focus/bigmac.html The Economist magazine for a few years has used the Big Mac Index to compare, tongue and cheek of course, the relative purchasing power of major currencies. The premise is both simple and brilliant. A Big Mac is made from the same ingredients with the same amount of labor everywhere in the world. The more Big Macs you can buy with your national currency, the higher your purchasing power. It's a great point of reference when you hear a story like people in Tzatzikistan are living on $100 a month. If they can buy a 1000 Big Macs a month and you can only afford 900 Big Macs, maybe they're not so bad off after all. The Smoking Gun www.thesmokinggun.com The Smoking Gun digs up dirt on celebrities in the form of court records and other public documents. The site's creators make the documents available as GIF files. There are a lot of amusing things here like Bill Gates' mug photos from a 1977 traffic violation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The traffic violation is unspecified and one can only wonder what kind of traffic violation requires a mug shot. Some of the material here is disturbing. For example, you can read Diana Plato's autopsy report. Aviation Safety Network Cockpit Voice Recordings aviation-safety.net/cvr/ The Aviation Safety Network site has a number of transcripts of cockpit voice recordings moments before disaster. Some of the material here is chilling. For example, there's a transcript of the last thirty minutes of Korean Air Flight 007, the Boeing 747 that was shot out of the skies when it crossed into Soviet airspace in 1983. One moment the pilots are talking about vacation plans and the next moment the pilot is telling his fellow crew mates to stub out their cigarettes for an emergency descent and then silence. Zing www.zing.com I love when people show me their photo albums. Sometimes it's fun to see what your friends looked like when they were young and in better shape. Sometimes it's nice to find out you're not the only one who goes to interesting places like Hawaii or Paris and brings back mostly photos of parking lots. Zing lets people create online photo albums and lets viewers search for albums based on keywords. Nom en hieroglyphes webperso.iut.univ-paris8.fr/~rosmord//nomhiero.html Have you ever wondered what your name would look like in Egyptian hieroglyphics? Me neither, but this site in France (the page is bilingual) will convert your name into hieroglyphics suitable for displaying on your web page or your sarcophagus. Sodaconstructor Sodaplay.com/constructor/index.htm Sodaconstructor is for people who always wanted to see their mechano set creations come to life. You construct wire frame creatures, set values for gravity and friction, and watch your creations prance about. Their movement is so lifelike, it's eerie to watch. It's also visually addictive like the Hamster Dance (www.hamsterdance.com) page. When you get bored, you can do things like vary the gravity. It's pitiful to see your proud creature suddenly become airborne as you drop the gravity to zero and then land helplessly on its back when you crank up the G forces.