Help Cool the Globe
Long ago, duenos.net introduced Colin Beavan, the no impact man. As easily as we can cheer him and others like him on, we can also take action in our own way. It’s OK to complain about the state of global warming and pollution in our environment, but it is even better to act.
Look on Stopglobalwarming.org (the posters below are theirs), Sierraclub.org, and Climatecrisis.net to find simple and effective ways to clean up our earth. Committing to some of these actions will not only reduce pollution, but your spending and waistline, too. It’s a win-win-win.
Previously featured on Duenos.net:
- Colin Beavan, the no impact man, featuring a great interview with Stephen Colbert.
- Permafrost no longer, about the decline in frostiness of Arctic tundra.
- Betting on global warming, about a bookie who takes bets on climate change science.
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evite.com
Although I’ve only received and never yet sent an evite, I wanted to promote this modern form of getting a party planned and subsequently started. An evite contains electronic directions, an add-to-calendar or send-to-phone option, easy RSVPing, and other paper saving amenities that our internet savvy generation can appreciate. In short, don’t be a dinosaur, send evites!
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Visual DNA
Here’s a cool site. This personality test runs you through a bunch of pictures that visually describe a specific term. After doing a bunch of them it comes up with your personality type and then matches you with others who’ve gotten similar results. It’s no e-harmony, but it’s something to do for 5 minutes while avoiding real work.
Also it’s a little late for Christmas, but I ran across a strange visual gift finder also hosted at Imagini.net that apparently thinks that I want to receive cashmere hot water bottle holders, Moleskine city notebooks, paintballing for two, ethical travel guide, and collar stiffeners with the city of London etched on.
I’d rather not. (Thanks to Tommy for the tip)
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WikiYou: great idea, bad execution
WikiYou is the self-proclaimed “unauthorized biography of every person on earth.” An admirable idea since Wikipedia editors can be real assholes about peoples’ “noteworthiness.” Still, go to the front page of WikiYou and you immediately run into usability problems. The only option is a search bar—very zen/Google but altogether unhelpful. Also WikiYou is an excellent demonstration of what happens to wiki-pages that aren’t properly policed. Check out Sandra Bullock to see what I mean. Random symbols, bad grammar, no citations, it’s a big mess. I suppose there are worse things out there to complain about it, but I hate it when a good idea gets screwed over by crappy execution.
Perhaps they should take some notes from yesterday’s article about NASA’s killer homepage.
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Lulz and Secretz: lolsecretz blog
For those of you who haven’t gone online in a few years, Lolcatz are funny pictures (like this one of the sub-phenomenon Ceiling Cat) combined with pithy phrases, usually in internet shorthand, or Leet. Combine the joy of Lolcatz with the voyeuristic and empathetic site Postsecret in which people anonymously confess their secrets in artistic postcard form and you get the lolsecretz blog. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Funny and sad.
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Your secret is out Monty Python
Remember those hilarious stop animation sequences in Monty Python shows in which a picture would ‘talk’ by showing a simple cut-out mouth moving up and down with the sound? Well, you too can create such comic genius with the help of super futuristic technology at Blabberize.com!. The website itself is well worth a visit to be insulted by a sarcastic Alpaca, but it’s fun (and relatively easy) to create your own blabbering picture. Or so they tell you. I’ve been trying to get through to do it myself but their website is apparently under attack from TechCrunch readers who want to do the same thing I do. If anyone has any luck, let me know how it turns out.
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Millionaire Mate.com
It turns out that apparently every subset of people out there needs a dating site. Just as the indie/hipster folk have Nerve Personals, so do the yuppies and gold diggers. Their slightly tamer version of Adult Friend Finder is called MillionaireMate.com and pledges to appeal to those who just have too much class for the ‘other dating sites.’
Here are just some of the perks to listing with Millionaire Mate, taken straight from the site:
- Save time searching for beautiful, sophisticated women who appreciate a man of substance.
- Receive the attention you deserve as our men get many more email and invitations to meet than at other dating sites.
- Meet talented and successful men who’ve achieved wealth and status and are eager to share the benefits of a fabulous lifestyle with you.
- Date with confidence – our wealth verification system helps you find the right man.
That last one is my personal favorite. This website filters for you, only rich guys here. Sounds tempting, but for me, I think I’ll stick with Nerve.
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The First Website Ever
I was reading up on CERN and found out that they had developed the World Wide Web (then abbreviated W3). CERN translated, by the way, is the European Organization for Nuclear Research and is most famous for its particle accelerators that encircle part of the France-Switzerland border. They’ve also made anti-matter, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, though the first internet site ever isn’t as exciting as, say duenos.net, it does provide a nostalgic glimpse into the past.
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Last.fm sold to CBS
I absolutely love when ingenious yet simple ideas garner mega-millions from big corporations. Today’s news brought another such story: CBS purchased Last.fm, the musical social networking megasite, for a sweet sum of $240 million dollars. Fortunately for everyone who loves the site, Last.fm will retain its autonomy, and the creators argue that being owned by CBS will allow them additional resources to improve the site.
Hopefully, we will see some better results with this transaction than we did with the sale of the best video game site on the internet, GameFAQs, to C|Net.
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Puppy War
Move over cuteoverload, this site might just have you beat. In the spirit of ratemyeverything.com, Puppy War pits puppy against puppy in a battle for overall cuteness. It really is amazing that people have this much time on their hands. Come to think of it, I’ve already given this entry too much thought. Go to the site and enjoy.
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Visual Thesaurus
You may have already heard of this cool web-tool but just in case you hadn’t, here’s the Visual Thesaurus. This program/website is not really all that useful (and probably not worth the price) but it is a cool alternative way to see the relationships between words. The people at ThinkMap make it easy to try the service, just not for very long. Go over to VisualThesaurus.com and try the free trial, maybe you’ll find it invaluable.
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Move Over Wikipedia
For those of the conservative persuasion, you no longer have to be polluted with Wikipedian biases. Conservapedia.com is a site dedicated to a lower liberal quotient {LQ=L/(L+C)}, which defines the percentage of liberals existing amongst a population. Members proudly submit “reliable” articles “without false claims of neutrality” in order to uphold “certain principles which [they] adhere to.” The following quote details the origins of the site: ”Conservapedia began in November 2006, as the class project for a World History class of 58 advanced homeschooled and college-bound students meeting in New Jersey.” With such a reliable beginning, we can be rest assured that these top 100 articles effectively purge liberal thinking. For other info on the conservative movement from duenos, check out conservatives with sea legs.
Conservapedia has been profiled before on duenos a long time ago, although at the time the servers were so overloaded Alex couldn’t learn much. He did produce a funny screen capture. Thanks to QT for the reminder.
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Facebook launches Marketplace
Could craigslist be in trouble? Social giant facebook’s new marketplace feature will combine the social function of its site with an internet-based community marketing forum in which individual users can buy and sell anything from each other. Of course, this function is perfect for facebook users who are already self-organized into local city, company, or university networks. By combining the business functions with the social network, facebook could bring even more people into internet bartering/trade, assuring everyone on both ends of the transaction accountability. If you’re a facebook user, check out your local marketplace here and see what’s for sale.
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Askville, a new website from Amazon
Sort of like the now-defunct Google Answers, Askville is a community-based general question and answer forum. I found out about it this morning by e-mail from Amazon, and already they have some great questions that have been answered. For example, one person asked How long does it take to heal a sprained ankle? (it depends on a lot of variables) and this other woman asked how to brush her cat’s teeth? (very carefully). In answer to both questions, the answers seemed very competent, well-researched and not at all flippant (like mine). Also, for added kitsch value, question respondents can link to Amazon product pages for items that could help in solving the question at hand.
Have a few spare minutes? Help someone out by logging onto Askville and lend your expertise.
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What Wikipedians Search For
Curious about what Wikipedians are up to? This tool continually calculates the most viewed pages on each of all the Wikipedian projects offered. The above link is preset to view the top 100 articles viewed during April 2007 for English Wikipedia. In case you were wondering, 11% of the top viewed articles involved some sexual content and the number one searched definition in English Wiktionary was MILF. Aren’t you glad to know that one of the most visited sites in the world is being put to good use.
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The Easiest Way to Give
The internet has made helping out the world and the people around you as simple as clicking. This donation directory lists websites that donate 100% of their advertising revenue to great causes. I urge you to add at least one of these websites in your favorites and try clicking once or twice throughout your day. These websites make closing out elusive pop-ups and annoying advertisements a heart warming and fulfilling activity. My favorite website is thehungersite.com, which includes links to sister sites for breast cancer, child healthcare, literacy, rainforest preservation, and animal rescue. This provides an effortless, yet effective way to contribute.
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Save Money – Get Your Free Financial Report Card and GPA
One of your most important things in your financial life is your FICO score. It is essentially fiscal GPA that measures how worthy of credit you are based upon several factors. It is imperative to know what yours is. Unfortunately, each time your FICO score is officially requested it decreases. Thanks to a great FICO score estimator at bankrate.com, you can get an accurate estimated range of where you’re at so you can learn to improve it and compare yourself to the median. Another thing you should get annually is your free credit report from one of three agencies. By monitoring both your GPA and report card, you’re more secure from identity theft and exponentially more attractive to loaners.
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Photoblog Perfection
Every once in a while you stumble across something so beautiful that your jaw drops and stays ajar. Now imagine having that experience repeatedly as you page photo by photo through a stunning exposition of verdant vistas, stark machinery, luminescent locales, and shadowy cityscapes. Exploring Julien Roumagnac’s variegated adventure through some of the most visually appealing scenes that life has to offer has truly been a joy.
I simply cannot get enough of the above picture, and it will live as my desktop background for a long, long time. Roumagnac utilizes Adobe Photoshop to create some of the effects seen in his photos, but I believe that this adds an interesting layer to the art. The photoblog is well-organized and easy to navigate; visit it at http://www.j-roumagnac.net/
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You'll want to know what's in that treasure box, too.
I recently discovered Treasure Box, a beautiful little flash game, and I could not help become engrossed in simple, stylish puzzles that it offers. The premise is straightforward: guide the bright, red ball through the various quirks, twists, and turns of this bizarre world to a well-hidden and mysterious treasure box.
The art and style of this game are vaguely reminiscent of the mind-warpingly awesome movie Yellow Submarine. Explore and enjoy this unique experience!
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House M.D. - Medical Reviews
I recently became completely hooked on the show “House”, which in my mind is extremely fascinating for the medical puzzles that drive the plot (and come on, the personality of Dr. House is awesome). The blog Polite Dissent chronicles the veracity of medical elements in popular media, including television and comics.
In particular, the blog features some excellent reviews of the medicine practiced by the misanthropic Dr. House and his overly attractive group of doctors. Given the reviews it seems that, in general, the show does a reasonable job of featuring accurate medicine (though it most certainly remains a work of fiction).
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The how-to video repository
SuTree is an online collection of free tutorial videos. The videos are usually hosted elsewhere and the links contributed by users, but SuTree adds an element of ranking and community discussion, in addition to putting all of the videos in one search-able database. The subject of the videos is widely varied but with a little looking around you can learn such useful things as how to grow your own potatoes, perform a perfect breast stroke, draw a horse, or fold a t-shirt (super cool and embedded below).
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Free, Personalized Ring Tones
Why should the ring tone business be a $4.4 billion dollar a global year industry when you can get ring tones for free? All Mobile17.com requires from you is an e-mail address (don’t worry, they detest spam) and your phone model information (which they keep safe and don’t sell). With their easy-to-use site, you simply locate a song file you have on your computer, choose the start time of your ring tone, the duration of your ring tone, and you’re set. For their free service, you’ll wait awhile before you’re sent a text message with straightforward instructions to get your ring tone. It’s quick, simple, and free.
Caution: If you don’t have an internet phone plan, you’ll pay charges to your phone provider based on the size of your file.
Check out this discussion and these tips for proper cell phone etiquette.
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Interactive photography exhibit online
The Smithsonian Photography Initiative ‘invites you to explore the world of Smithsonian photography’ by creating sequences of user-tagged images and sharing them with others. Of the hundreds of available photographs to manipulate, order, and play with, I couldn’t find one that wasn’t absolutely beautiful. This site is worth visiting just for the great pictures, but the very interactive way in which the photos are presented makes it even more fun, transforming a traditionally passively-enjoyed art form into something more communicative.
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Damn Interesting Stuff
Need a first-rate site to distract yourself at work and/or to make yourself sound smarter? Try this intriguingly addictive website that’ll get you absolutely hooked. Their talented writers compile fantastic articles on topics that tip the scales of reality. I suggest starting at the Greatest hits sections and continuing from there. Do you know any other site that tells you how to survive in space with out a suit?
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Audio Books at the Right Price
If you’re always on-the-go, a devout book lover, or just plain lazy, librivox.org has many free and legal audio books available for your literary delight. Their catalog is a growing collection of published books with expired copyrights read by volunteers from around the world. I’ve already listened to Alice and Wonderland and, despite the occasional faint dog barking in the background, their books are of decent quality. There’s finally a faster and easier way to get free literature without late fees and actually having to read.
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