Think of iSketch as global Pictionary. When was the last time you played a fun doodle guessing game with a total stranger? Here's how it works: one player is given a secret word to sketch, and the other players have three minutes to figure out the word. If the word is guessed, the sketcher and the player who guessed correctly are awarded points. The sketch tools are a little tricky at first, but they're similar to most graphics applications. As long as two people are online, a game is in session. Jump in at anytime to play (but first you'll need to grab the latest Shockwave plug-in).
America at Work, America at Leisure
The American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress presents this digital movie archive of work, school, and play in the early days of the 20th century. From surfing at Coney Island to canoeing on Boston's Charles River, from cattle branding to early assembly-line automation, the collection is impressive. Watch a snippet of 1898 baseball, visit the "ghetto" fish market on the Lower East Side circa 1903, or stop by an Esquimaux village from the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y.
If last week's Popular Guide to Unpopular Music sent you in some tuneful new directions, you're bound to find some exciting literary voices at the Dalkey Archive Press. Operating out of the University of Illinois, the Dalkey Archive Press has published over 200 books from brilliant and often obscure writers. Its authors include old-school modernists like Gertrude Stein, Flann O'Brien, and Ford Madox Ford, as well as contemporary authors like Anne Carson, David Markson, and Gilbert Sorrentino. Tip: David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress is the greatest book you have yet to read.
Next time a well-intentioned neighbor, colleague, or family member warns you not to open an email with Good Times virus, NaughtyRobot, or cat colonic in the subject field, smile smugly to yourself and send them this URL. The Computer Incident Advisory Capability, or CIAC, provides technical assistance and computer security information to the U.S. Department of Energy. Their site has long provided a public service to Internet users everywhere. These recently revamped pages are a veritable bible of hoax recognition and prevention, thoughtfully organized into categories like urban myths, give-aways, threats, and scams.
A web designer's version of the telephone game, the Conform Project has a very simple premise, which involves "passing an image around to various designers, with each one adding to and subtracting content from the original image. Other than having to keep the size the same and use some elements of the original, there are no guidelines." Needless to say, the imagistic collages used in the Conform Project undergo some fairly dramatic transformations. View the entire thumbnail series on a single page, then double-click to get a closer look.
Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity
The daughter of Polish schoolteachers, Marie Curie struggled to gain an advanced scientific education, then went on to pioneer the study of radioactivity, discover the elements polonium and radium, earn two Nobel prizes, and survive tragic personal loss and professional rivalries. She successfully combined love, marriage, motherhood, and a demanding career in the public eye. The American Institute of Physics presents a picture-book biography of thoroughly-modern Marie Curie (1867-1934), whose heroic, oft-romanticized life set the stage for our own atomic age and continues to serve as a model for women of science.
"Change the World" is the masthead motto of this energetic New York-based monthly zine. Womanrock.com, which celebrated its first birthday this past spring, is hosting a series of Planet Girl concert events this summer, and plans to launch its first CD as an independent label for female rockers. Combining GenX feminism with online entrepreneurship, Brenda Kahn is editor, emblematic grrl guitarist, and band leader. The mood here is amped, articulate, indie, and committed to the enduring sisterhood of rock 'n' roll.
A lively multimedia survey of the cloud forests of Central America, Cloud Forest Alive features a number of humid highlights: photos of prehistoric-looking insects, live hummingbird feeds, howler monkey sound clips, and something called an Eyelash Viper. Those of you familiar with the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor may find some of the material fairly remedial, but there's no denying that the QuetzalCam rocks. As their name suggests, cloud forests are immersed in dense clouds most of the time, giving them a relative humidity of roughly 100 percent. As a result, all manner of amazing plants and animals flourish within them. See for yourself.