AMF: I Love the Internet

My big sister, Mighty Mo, has a bona fide category on her blog entitled I hear the intarwebz, in which she showcases all of the hilarious crap that she finds on the Internet. (The one she has up at the moment, for example, is quite bizarre, but also quite hilarious.) So, in my latest "The Fly is Catching Up" themed post, I'm going to showcase a handful of cool things that I've found on the Internet recently, and I'll throw in a few of my all time favorite websites as well.

Since I was in high school, I've been watching or listening to various bits by the comedy troupe Monty Python. I was initiated by watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail for my fifteenth birthday, and a couple of their other films followed thereafter. When I was in late high school or early college, I discovered my favorite bit: The Pope Vs. Michelangelo from Monty Python Live at Hollywood Bowl. I even performed that last one on the radio with a buddy, I liked it so much.

So, where am I going with all of this? Well, in November of '08, the Pythons posted the following video on YouTube.



The funny thing? It actually worked - to the tune of a twenty-three thousand percent increase in their DVD sales. For it's overwhelmingly excellent contributions to art and capitalism, I love the Internet.

I'm not as thrilled with the Minority Report/Nineteen Eighty-Four-esque revelation that there are apparently advertising screens in public places that can watch you and adjust their content accordingly. That, my friends, is disturbing, creepy, and invasive.

In 2005, after I'd graduated and while I was studying Arabic, I decided that I wanted to read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I'm not always great at picturing what it is that I'm reading, and I remember looking several times to try to find something that would allow me to envision Captain Nemo's submarine. A week or two ago, I found exactly what I'd been wishing for all those weeks that I was working on reading the book: an entire website dedicated to the design of the Nautilus, both inside and out. Some of the pictures are just stunning, so I highly recommend it, especially if you've read the book. It's one of the websites that helps me to keep falling in love with the Internet, over and over again.

Thanks to the Wired.com Danger Room blog, I also found a new website called IMINT & Analysis, which appears to be an excellent open source intelligence (OSINT) blog. Assuming that they're not posting anything they're not supposed to be posting, these blogs are a great way to educate yourself and stay informed about what's going on in the world from a strategic defense perspective.

As many of you know, I'm a kilting enthusiast. Wearing a kilt involves more than just the kilt itself: you also need things like kilt socks, a kilt pin, and a sporran. The sporran is the leather pouch that one wears with a kilt. I have one that I got in Edinburgh (right around here), but I've wanted a better one for a long time. A few years ago, when I was in Wyoming with my dad, I visited the shop of a guy who makes custom leather goods, whose business is called Wyoming Custom Leather. Having read a post about one guy's antique sporran when I was in college, I've wanted a really special sporran for quite a while. I E-Mailed the guy at Wyoming Custom Leather yesterday in hopes that he might be willing to turn one of my old animal hides into a custom leather sporran for me. I'm waiting to hear back from him, but hopefully I can get it done, and for a reasonable price. That would be absolutely sweet, and the ability to arrange it in part or completely online is one of the many reasons why I love the Internet.

I've been trying to put together a list of my top ten favorite websites of all time for a while now, and I have a hard time narrowing it down. Here are some of the ones that have already made the cut. (That sporran one is one of them, so I won't list it again.)

Jawas Explained - The entire war on terrorism, boiled down to Star Wars terms for easy understanding.

History of Israel & "Palestine" - Another great site about the Middle East that explains the history of Israel and the territories that are somewhat inaccurately referred to as "Palestine"; not very PC, but very historically accurate, so read the site to see what I mean.

Aliens Cause Global Warming - A fantastic speech by Michael Crichton that covers the hysteria and junk science behind a number of controversial scientific/political issues.

Dispelling the CIA-Bin Laden Myth - The CIA did not finance Osama bin Laden, and this article by Richard Miniter explains what the situation actually was in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the 1980's.

King James the I and VI - A little bit tacky, but this is a fascinating website about the Scottish monarch who went on to rule Great Britain, and who commissioned the King James Version of the Bible.

Redneck Neighbor - One man chronicles the bizarre, tacky, destructive projects and behaviors of his redneck neighbor - if you've never seen this, you'll probably wet your pants laughing, it's that funny.

That's it, folks! Have a great weekend, and check in Monday for a review of what is shaping up to be a fascinating weekend for yours truly.