This week’s surfing adventure runs the gamut from B-movies to making a thought-screen helmet. If you’ve never heard of a thought-screen helmet, prepare to be entertained. In addition, there is a website devoted to helping left-handers. Too late for me; I flunked scissors. Finally, a reminder about observing Earth Hour on March 29, which I wrote about in the first CyberScribbles column of 2008.

B-Movies (www.bmovies.com). No sign up is necessary, just choose what you want to view, then sit back and enjoy. Choose horror, science fiction, kung fu or wild westerns. I chose to watch a 1952 film of the Lone Ranger. I remember watching that show before color television, and I may have listened to it on the radio. Anyway, I found out after all these years how the Lone Ranger received his famous moniker. I did not know that Tonto made the Lone Ranger’s mask from the vest of the masked hero’s fallen brother. What I do know now from an adult’s point of view is that the acting was cheesy. Work your way through the menu of films you can watch. “Little Shop of Horrors” is among them, as well as several Bruce Lee and Buck Rogers movies. There are some more recent films and some classics that will keep you occupied on a rainy day.

Writing Left Handed (www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk). Watch tutorials that help southpaws navigate the world of pencil and paper. Most of us who favor our left hand tended to just slog along, smearing our palms and adjusting to right-handed desks in school. No wonder we are considered more creative. I have cramped, badly turned letters—just as the tutorials warn against. But then, you try writing down quotes when someone is talking fast in an interview. Pay attention to the numbers of writers and artists who are left-handed. Oh, and I would like to know how to cut with the left-handed scissors sold on this site. I tried a pair once, but could not get them to work for me.

Stop Alien Abductions (www.stopabductions.com). Wow! Free step-by-step instructions for making a thought-screen helmet to ward off intrusive alien eavesdropping! This website, which appears to be all serious business, is funnier than some of the sites tagged as funny. Michael Menkin, a technical writer who has done work for NASA among other companies, is the inventor of the helmet. Obviously, he is not trying to make money off this site. He lists the supplies needed and where to find them. Apparently, he is very serious about winning the telepathic war he believes we humans are fighting with the aliens. The testimonials are funny, too.

Earth Hour (www.earthhour.org). Mark this Saturday, March 29 on your calendar now. At 8 pm that evening, folks around the globe will turn off their lights for an hour as a way to create “a positive tipping point” in the race to slow down global warming. This concept is a global attempt to replicate what the city of Melbourne, Australia started last year. At the Earth Hour website, individuals from businesses, town and city governments, and anyone else can pledge to get an awareness campaign started. You can watch a short video and see Melbourne go dark, as well as listen to appeals. Sounds like a good idea to me.

            Is it safe to say that winter is behind us? Easter heralds a new season and it is unlikely that any of us in Beacherland will take for granted the warmer days ahead. At this time of year, decorated eggs symbolize rebirth. Below are some websites that feature some of those exquisite eggs. A few other sites mentioned, while not directly related to Easter, have to do with hope, too.

Easter Facts and Traditions (www.factmonster.com/spot/easter.). Short explanations are geared for schoolchildren, and perhaps the rest of us who have become too lazy to read more than 500 words at one time. Passover is also explained. Links to other holidays take you to easy-to-read material. Factmonster, developed by Information Please, aggregates information in a simple format. If you want to try finding information outside of, say, Wikipedia, this might be a simpler choice.

Easter Around the World (www.aerostamps.com/chetski/holidays/Easter/traditions). Unlike Christmas, Easter traditions are not as diverse, it appears. I found a “recipe” for making colored eggs according to a German tradition, where eggs are boiled with onion peels, or beet juice, or spinach juice for coloring. Old-fashioned, maybe, but the coloring method might appeal to parents who don’t like the idea of using packaged food coloring. I wanted to find out about the tradition of bonfires at Easter in Germany, but the link was broken.

House of Faberge (www.faberge.de). Who can resist looking at the bejeweled eggs that Tsar Nicholas commissioned for Easter gifts? The tradition of creating these wonderful objects of art continues today, with contemporary themes created by Faberge artist Victor Mayer. Choose the link on the home page that takes you to a gallery of Mayer’s work. I don’t recall seeing any prices, but then, if one has to ask, then he or she can’t afford it.

Learn Pysanki (www.learnpysanki.com/steps/). Anyone can learn how to make (write) the decorative eggs that are a Ukrainian tradition. Just follow the step-by-step, illustrated instructions, and pick a design from a selection that ranges from basic to advanced. This website provides bunches of information, including original dye recipes and explanations for the symbols and colors.

Pysanki Showcase (www.pysankishowcase.com). This website belongs to Patty Wishnuk-De Angelo, a New Jersey Pysanki writer whose work was selected to be exhibited at the White House in 2004. The gallery is loaded with beautiful eggs to view. One that especially caught my attention was an etched emu egg of a Cossack. If you are considering the idea of writing some Pysanki, you might want to view this gallery first in order to gather some design ideas.

Fortune Cookie Fortunes (www.chinese-fortune-cookie.com). Don’t laugh: I purchased some plastic fortune cookies to insert “fortunes” for a group warm-up activity, and I needed ideas. Imagine my delight when I found this website, offering four different .PDF files to download and print. The challenge of writing my own fortunes was solved, except for having to cut each little strip and inserting them into their plastic home. Made me wonder how those fortunes we find tucked inside the sugary cookie get in there. If anyone travels to San Francisco, they can find out by taking a tour of a fortune cookie factory. I’m packed and ready to go. What a great Beacher feature that would be! All I need now is an airline ticket.

The Internet Rainbow (www.the-internet-rainbow.co.nr). It will take you less than two seconds to add your personal color to a growing band of “rainbow.” Mine is a shade of green, and I guess I was the 249,813^th person to add a color. I’m not sure what value this site has, other than a time-waster. (Via Growabrain).

Have you ever noticed the number of bylines in the Beacher with Irish names? I guess that makes us really special this time of year. Naturally, I found you a St. Patrick’s Day site as I roamed the green hills and valleys of the internet this past week. And for you more serious readers, you can park yourself in front of a website that addresses the excesses of the information age. Then, when you get tired of reading, you can move on to the bits of trivia that add to the aforementioned excess.

All St. Patrick’s Day (www.holidays.net/stpattys/). Did you know that true Irishmen scoff at the tradition of green (Guinness) beer? Or that leprechauns are cobblers by profession? Whatever you are looking for to celebrate the wearin’ of the green next Monday, you’ll find it here. How about a recipe for Colcannon? Or, you can learn to write a limerick, or memorize an Irish blessing. You’ll find clip art, coloring pages, puzzles, more recipes, history, and lots of other information to make you ready to celebrate. Here is an Irish Blessing for you that I copied from the website:

May your life be long

May your heart be true

May your path be clear

And your skies be blue

May your soul be happy

And your spirit light

May you know deep joy

May your dreams take flight

Propaganda Analysis (www.propagandacritic.com). This is a perfect time to read up on the slight-of-words spewing from the mouths of presidential candidates, or admen. My eyes started to glaze over a bit, so I found my way over to the video gallery, where I caught about five minutes of a (longer) 1960’s-era film, “Brink of Disaster.” This propaganda film addresses those “dirty hippies” and the importance of supporting the Viet Nam war. There are several other films to view in the archives. Somewhere along the way I found myself at the Prelinger Archives (www.archive.org), where a huge repository of films—good ones and not so good ones, are free for the viewing.

Worst Foods in America (www.menshealth.com/20worst/worstfood). This is an article in the online magazine that reviews 20 heavy-on-the-calories-and-fat menu items that will guarantee to add pounds to your frame, and clogs to your arteries.. All are chain restaurant or fast-food selections. Tops in calories are the Aussie cheese fries with Ranch dressing. The onion blossom at another restaurant comes in second. You’ll have to read the article to discover the other 18 worst foods.

Most Expensive Car Toys (http://fulgeria.com/en/2008/02/22/the-most-expensive-car-toys/). Yes, indeed. Words deceive. I was expecting to find gadgets, and aftermarket gizmos when I read the teaser headline. Instead, I gazed at a photo of a full-size Ferrari Formula 1 race car made from Belgian chocolate. The cost? $24,000.. For chocolate! No motor! And that is just one of about six “car toys” featured here. None of them are functional, but the full-sized racer made of toothpicks(!) is certainly a wonder. By the way, I apologize for the long url. I found a shorter one to get you to this site, but you would be wading through some racy, family-unfriendly photos to access the car toys.

Reliable Resources (www.collegedegree.com/library/). A listing of 25 online resources will lead you to trusted information—helpful when you are doing research or writing a term paper. Several of the listings have been mentioned previously in this column. One that was new to me is Intute (www.intute.ac.uk), which I briefly scanned. With online movies and quick bytes of this-and-that proliferating on the Web, I truly wonder how many people use their computers for educational purposes.

Visual Arts Data Service (www.vads.ahds.ac.uk/). Since I have an interest in digital scrapbooking, I am usually looking around for copyright-free images. Several gallery archives are posted at VADS, as this service is called. I found myself drawn to the “Posters of Conflict” gallery, which focuses on WWI and WWII, and contains over 7,000 images. I figure that visual learners can absorb a decent understanding of the effects the two world wars had on people. The images are not in chronological order, however. You must be willing to look through pages and pages of images, which can eat away a good chunk of time. There are some disturbing images of Hitler’s propaganda, and some curious ones about the need to eat potatoes, not bread, gather rags, metals, buy war bonds, etc. You’ll come away understanding the many hardships people lived through during each war.

Dante’s Inferno (http://web.eku.edu/flash/inferno). Throw away the Cliff Notes, students. This flash presentation is much more enlightening than dry reading.

String Theory (www.tenthdimension.com). This flash presentation and explanation makes it so much easier to grasp the concepts of the fourth-through-tenth dimensions, especially for slugs such as myself. It will give your brain a good workout and keep senility at bay. If you dig what you experience, then head over to the forum page and read the remarks of the many people who appear to easily understand these concepts.

Jeopardy Questions (www.j-archive.com/listseasons.). Remember superstar Ken Jennings? You too can become just as brainy by plowing through the questions (oops! I mean “answers”) from Seasons 1 through 24. It’s a lot of reading, but your brain will love you for the challenge.

Only in Russia (http://sneez.com/only-in-russia). This one is for Charley McElvey, our foreign correspondent who fell in love with the country of my ancestors. This site has posted about a dozen photos of strange circumstances that might be found in a “backward” nation. I particularly liked the bales of hay stacked haphazardly on the back of a compact truck. Enjoy, Charley!

 Artist or Ape? (http://reverent.org/an_artist_or_an_ape.) Measure your ability to recognize true abstract art from an ape’s painting. I was pleased with my perfect score. I don’t know if that means that the quiz was too easy, or that I can thank our local artists for teaching me some things. When you have finished that quiz, you will find lots more about literature, poetry, music and even politics.

The White House (www.whitehouse.gov).I visited the White House long before the internet was a reality. As I remember, which could be wrong because it was such a long time ago, we just showed up and waited for the tour to begin. Nowadays, things are different. Similar to the airlines’ restrictions, visitors who wish to tour the President’s temporary residence cannot bring along handbags, combs, cameras, or anything but themselves—with clothes on. If you don’t like restrictions, you can take an internet tour of the place. The website would be nicer if they took a tip from realtors and offered one of those nifty 360° virtual viewings, complete with a jazzy music loop. But no. That would cost us taxpayers another couple million, I suppose. Anyway, the site has some good information, namely that anyone can get tickets to participate in the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn. You have to reserve your tickets from the National Park Service people a few days beforehand. At last look, there was no information about WHEN for 2008, just a recap of last year’s event. (Phone the White House line at 202.456-7041 for the latest information). I’m guessing that politicians’ kids and grandkids get first dibs for the tickets, unless the families are off to Barbados or Seville or Tuscany for the Easter holidays. But really, there is quite a lot of good information about our Presidents here. Come back to it next January and see how it changes with our newly-elected prez.

Musical Crystal Glasses (www.fliggo.com/video/alvrdtoi). Fliggo is a smaller version of YouTube, so chances of getting your own “production” seen on the Web is a little easier. The musician, whose name is not given, plays a classical piece using water-filled crystal glasses  And he does it very well. The tone sounds like a harp, which would be much easier than this. I wonder how many crystal glasses this man goes through in a month.

Blast from the Past (www.paleofuture.com/2008/). “A look into the future that never was,” explains the site creator. I happened across an article here, written on November 8, 1970, titled “Computersville is Almost Here.” And, I figured the author of this piece was psychic, because most of what he said has come true. In addition to that little tidbit, Paleofuture has enough curious bits of nostalgia and laughable predictions to keep you clicking away at the links for a long time.

Strange Art (www.funforever.net/archives/chewing-gum-sculptures).  I suppose it’s cheaper to use chewing gum rather than marble, huh? The sculptures, all pink by the way, are created well enough. When I got tired of looking at them, I found links on the right column of the webpage that took me to balloon sculptures. Those intricate, rubbery figures are not something you learn to make in a clown class. Mosey around this site and you’ll find many more examples of strange art—or rather, art made from uncommon materials.

Troy Paiva’s Lost America (www.designshed.com/lostamerica/). Photography buffs can learn some of the techniques Troy employs to capture atmospheric and eerie shots of ghost towns, for example. Troy uses gels, strobes, flashlights, and long exposures under the full moon to create remarkable scenes of places most people would avoid at night. None of the work is photoshopped. He uses a Canon 20D SLR and in the past three years has gone digital, as most of us have.

Have you started working on your taxes yet? I’m not necessarily recommending tax software, but it may help to look at an eye-opening chart I discovered this week. After you have viewed it, race over to the chocolate site I mention below. Then settle down and jot some memories from long ago, using a useful online program.

Death and Taxes (www.thebudgetgraph.com). So. You want to know how our government is spending our money? This chart will show you. Included are the latest budget requests from our President, some of which were mentioned in his 2008 State of the Union address. There are more than 400 programs and departments on this chart. I noticed that the proposed budget includes a huge increase for the National Science Foundation, while the EPA’s proposed allotment has fallen. Lots of stuff to look at. Makes you want to find as many extra deductions as possible when you figure your taxes.

 Intentional Chocolate (www.intentionalchocolate.com). This is a commercial site, and I usually try to stay away from them for this column. But the premise behind this product is so notable that I had to share it with you. Here is a product description: “Intentional Chocolate is embedded with the following intention: Whoever consumes this chocolate will manifest optimal health and functioning at physical, emotional and mental levels, and in particular will enjoy an increased sense of energy, vigor and well-being. The new “ingredient” in Intentional Chocolate is not a conventional nutrient, but rather the focused benevolent intentions of highly experienced meditators. Intentional Chocolate is the first product born out of this mind-matter technology.” Apparently several restaurants in Chicago use the product.. Be sure to indulge when you finally sit down to do your taxes. Write My Memoirs (www.writemymemoirs.com). Anyone thinking about writing his or her life story ought to have a look at this website. Actually, it is free online software that allows you to create an autobiography easily. You can write one event at a time, and it helps you organize your thoughts. It has a section on helpful tips, too. I’m not sure why it is free. It looks like a fine program. Just be sure to read the privacy policy to see if it’s for you. The People History (www.thepeoplehistory.com). For nostalgia or for reference or both, this is a surprising find! Want to know how much things cost in the 1930’s? The answers are here, along with tidbits, trends, events and more of each decade starting from the 1920’s. The information spills over into a separate blog, and more is added as discovered. Rules of Thumb (http://rulesofthumb.org)  A rule of thumb is defined as “a homemade recipe for making a guess.” The goal of this site is to gather every rule of thumb on earth into a gigantic database. It is easily searchable and fun to browse. Antique Appraisals (www.eppraisals.com). There are various levels of services here, from free to fee-based. You can browse through more than 70 pages of appraisals and select three without having to pay for the information. You can submit your own antique or collectible information to get an appraisal, or you can just browse out of curiosity.  

Cam of the Week (www.fishycam.com). Fishy Cam lets you watch the action of fish swimming around in a fishbowl. Unlike other cams that often show nothing happening, this one, at least while I was watching) is full of fish swimming back and forth. A time-waster? Maybe, but it does get your mind off other stuff, so maybe it has some redeeming value.

If you are expecting references to Valentine’s Day here, I’m way ahead of you. If you remember, I covered one site last week (www.links2love.com). This week, I’ve been working on President’s Day, and much, much further out in time, some outer space predictions. I caught a few videos on YouTube about Nibiru, an alleged 12^th planet that prognosticators say is going to do the Earth major damage in  2012. Some of the videos were very convincing, but the Internet being what it is, one needs to check and double-check to make sure the information found is accurate. That said, you can guess the course of my surfing and its results this week. We’ll begin with our last several Presidents.

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Presidents & UFO’s (www.presidentialufo.com). I’m not sure how I arrived here. Probably from a link that dealt with Nibiru, the brown dwarf or Planet X or whatever it is—or is not. From FDR to our current President, each administration’s remarks or policy about UFO’s is presented here. Except for Jimmy Carter openly admitting to seeing a UFO (while campaigning, in his pre-President days), there is not much so-called declassified information here. But then, I just scanned quickly some documents put together for UFO fans. Um, did I tell you I saw a UFO once? It was close to 30 years ago and I was living in a remote area with clear skies and it scared the bejeebers out of me. The local police took my report while trying to hide their smirks. Despite that sighting, I am not ready to join the ranks of the UFO buffs.

The Planetary Society (www.planetary.org). I’m guessing that most of this nonprofit’s members have not sighted a UFO, but then, they would be open to the possibility. Their objective is public education and advocacy for space exploration. They could be considered an organization that is building a stairway to the stars for John Q. Public’s curiousity. Carl Sagan, among others, founded this organization. And it has cool stuff on its website. I learned that on January 28 of this year, Asteroird TU24 made its closest earth approach for the last 2,000 years. And in addition to news, the site has information about the opportunity to participate in “stardust@home,” the specks of space dust that need volunteers’help to sift through. One must download a special virtual microscope and officially register to help. This is not a video game, but serious research. So, if you have the time and interest, there’s a project for you. Unpaid, of course. I think I’d rather be out searching for specks of real gold.

Deep Space Video (www.fronteirmultimedia.com/deepspace.htm). For the price of just your speedy internet connection, you’ll get a very cool, approximately 3-minute look at the beauty of the cosmos, with appropriate music to boot. This is a commercial site that is selling 12-minute versions of Deep Space, Good Earth (also very cool—watch it, too) , the Moon and the Sun. The 3-minute previews are free. There is an offer for a demo download with a 7-day or 7-play option, which I assume is free. If you want to own one of these nifty cosmic shows, it will set you back only $12 (one dollar a minute). I can tell you that the 3-minute free version is definitely worth a look.

Tallahasee UFO sighting, 2005. 

I was planning to focus solely on Valentines’ sites this week, but found myself scanning other nooks and crannies around cyberspace. And yet, the theme that emerges for this week’s picks has to do with words.

Anyone who finds himself having to write something can find useful information this week.

Why We Write (http://whywewriteseries.wordpress.com). The writers’ strike has affected our television programs, including several award shows. These same striking writers were asked to contribute to this blog. So, you will find very good writing here, which makes for fun reading. This blog may appeal more to us writers of any genre, but if you wonder what makes a writer click, you will find many answers here.

Valentine Love Letters (www.links2love.com). Despite generally being geared towards a teenage audience, this site has one great section that anyone can enjoy. Here you can read the love letters of famous personalities such as Napoleon to Josephine, Victor Hugo to Adele Foucher, and Zelda Sayre to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Plus many more. “Don’t you think I was made for you? I feel like you ordered me…”Zelda exclaims. One is unlikely to find any more eloquent scribblings about love anywhere else on the Web. If you’re interested, some of the other stuff at this site includes flirtability quizzes and a valentine quote generator.

Buzzwhack (www.buzzwhack.com). This site was created to “demystify buzzwords.” It includes a separate IMglish dictionary. IM, for the unenlightened, is “instant messaging,” also text messaging. .MIHAP? I am AATK. BWTHDIK?  That is the short form of “May I have your attention please? I am always at the keyboard. But what the heck do I know?” Texting is much easier than spelling out each word. That requires actual spelling skills. And, who has time for spell-check, anyway? Me, because I’m not ready to join the texting generation. It’s still gibberish to me.

Fight the Bull (www.fightthebull.com). Speaking of gibberish, business jargon can be a pain  to read and understand. This site, which offers a free download of a “bull-whipper,” will analyze that verbose piece of unintelligible writing and score it. Many of you may be unaware that MS Word has a thesaurus, a word-count checker, and a wonderful composition-checker, the Flesch Reading Score. (My score is 60 for this column, with a reading grade level of 7. The latter utility is something I use for my longer pieces of writing, and it tells me at what grade level a reader can understand my writing, among other things. It is a wonderful helper for all writers. Now comes along this bull-whipper, which will rate your document’s ease of comprehension. I did not download the software, but I used another option found at the site: you can paste in a hard-to-read document and send it to the person who wrote it via e-mail. So, if your boss writes terrible memos that no one in the office understands, then you can alert him to his errors via the “Mystery Matador.” The boss will receive a friendly e-mail pointing out his errors. Go ahead; I tried it on my own piece of writing. It is friendly, and this service is anonymous, so the boss won’t know who sent it (unless you are his only employee).

Weather Cancellations (www.cancellations.com). As I sit here writing this, our local schools are closed due to the ice storm/freezing weather. If you have a child in school, you either watch the ribbon running across your television screen or turn on the radio for information. Maybe you call the school and hear a busy signal The ribbon on my very old screen is partially cut off, so that would not work for me if I had school-age kids. But, I can log on to this website and find out which area schools are closed or having delays. It works for businesses too, but you have to log in your school or business and keep the information updated for it to be effective for your students, employees, or customers. Spread the word.

 Two good causes, oddities, and loads of information about cities and towns in the United States caught be attention on the Web this week.  Plus, a mental challenge that escaped my attention earlier rounds out this week’s selection of websites. 

Outpost For Hope (www.outpostforhope.org). This is something akin to an Amber Alert, except that the grassroots organization which built the website focuses on advocacy for kids off the grid. Not only  missing children, either, are posted here. The organization works with families, social services and law enforcement to provide guidance, education and training. They work toward the goal of reunification. The missing persons are, as best I can guess, not necessarily in harms way. They are people who have walked away from their former lives. This site might be helpful to someone you know, so pass on the information.

Operation Happy Note (www.operationhappynote.com). The website helps a volunteer effort to send musical instruments to deployed service men and women around the world. This project appears to boost the morale of soldiers, judging from the photos posted at the website. One volunteer group holds concerts in Minnesota to raise funds and awareness of “Operation Iraq & Roll.” Donated guitars, and there have been many of them sent off, appear to be a big hit with the soldiers. If you have dusty instruments lying around unused, perhaps you would like to learn more about this project. Log on and find out more.

Oddities (http://oddee.com/). This blog focuses entirely on oddities of our world. A link took me to /item_91568, “7 Incredible Natural Phenomena You’ve Never Seen.” Three of the phenomena I read about (and viewed pictures of) were the raining fish of Honduras, red rain in India, and a fire rainbow in Idaho. Very interesting. I browsed some of the other offerings at Oddee and would say that half are truly worth reading and the rest is trivial junk.

City Data (www.city-data.com). Certainly not the only demographics information site, yet I liked the amount of information, the bar graphs, statistics, and general look of this website. Plug in a zip code and you will unearth all sorts of information, including a breakdown of the zip’s population by gender and race, the average adjusted gross income and other tax information, graphs related to the age of homes in the zip code, and most interesting to me, the companies that have received federal contracts. Maybe all this is boring to you, but not to people in real estate, or those thinking of relocating. Or the curious, like me.

  Ponder This (http://dominoresearch.ibm.com/comm/wwwr_ponder.nsf). Do yourself a favor and go directly to www.refdesk.com and click the link near the bottom of the right sidebar. It is much easier than writing down the extra-long url above. Once on the site, you can read the month’s challenge—guaranteed to make you ponder, and keep your mind sharp. Everyone who correctly solves the puzzle will find his name listed the following month, along with the solution. Personally, I hated those types of math reading quizzes. The January challenge reminded my of those dreadful math classes of long ago. On the other hand….I forgot what I was going to say.