Various & Sundry

It was eight this morning - I rolled out of bed, giddy as a child preparing for the Christmas holiday, rushing downstairs for my treat. Today, today I had cable installed in my house for the first time in three years and the internet for the first time in four. As Stimpy would say, "joy." Needless to say, I've been online all day, rocking out. There has been little or no method to this madness - all I've done is seek out new and rocktastic sites. Let me show you what I've found. I think you'll be pleased.

1. World War II Posters: I love propaganda. I mean I straight up sick love it - that shouldn't surprise you, after all, I am a political scientist formally trained in the fine arts, eh? Anyway, this website, a product of Northwestern University, is really worth an hour or two. Not only is it incredibly simple to navigate, it is also home to detailed, high-quality images, you know, the kind you'd have covered your elementary school social science project backboard with (when printed out in full color from a Kinko's or Kinko's-equivalent).

2. Swarm: Voyeurism of a different type . . . I can't possibly describe this one in an appropriate way, so dig on this quote:

Swarm shows you what websites people are visiting, right now. Swarm is a graphical map of hundreds of websites, all connecting to each other. It updates itself every second with where people are going and coming from. As sites become more popular, they move towards the center of the swarm and grow larger. Conversely, sites that lose traffic move away from the center and grow smaller. Website traffic is symbolized with thin lines. Each time you see a line appear, it means someone has moved from one site to the other. You can gauge how many people are swarming around based on the number of lines.

According to its makers, this site is all about browsing, not searching - read "I'm bored." Plus, chat about any site you find with other bored people. Win friggin' win, baby.

3. Pulse Discharge: How my friend Jay S. Burns will probably leave this earth.

4. Altered Books: Defacing books for art?

5. Aliens and Children: Holy Sar Bradley. Kids drawing aliens. Hooray!

And my favorite (in a macabre sort of way):

6. The Lawrence Hutton Collection of Life and Death Masks: The most direction connection we have with hundreds, if not thousands, of great men and women who have fled their mortal frames is the death mask, models for artists and artisians, not to mention the occasional neophyte. This one won't take you long to look through but darned if you won't find yourself going back over and over again - this one is truly fascinating.