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Daniel Rosario
If there are many who judge a book by its cover, the artwork depicted on James Bond paperbacks would have to be considered a factor in the popularity of this fiction hero.
The same can be said for the advertising campaigns and attractive posters promoting the movies.
The Art of James Bond gives you a chance to appreciate artwork concerning 007, from the '50s to the present. The site has galleries according to different artists, as well as sections for posters, first edition covers, concept art, paperback art and even Playboy art that illustrated the story serialisation in the girlie magazine.
They come interspersed with interesting facts. Did you know, for instance, that to make the novels more popular in the US, Casino Royale was renamed You Asked For It and Moonraker changed to Too Hot to Handle?
Since the site warns that some file sizes are quite large, it comes as no surprise that a number of pages take long to load. When they do load, you realise it's been worth the wait. And if you want to learn how the Web master manages the high quality pictures, a section on digital restoration will afford a behind-the-scenes look.
Mark's Apology Note Generator
Falling in love is hard on the knees. Apologising on bended knee to your lover for all your many faults is harder still.
When you are wracked with guilt and don't particularly know how to say sorry, this Apology Note Generator, designed by a guy called Mark, can help you out.
Mark swears by his creation, and uses it for all his 'butt-kissing needs'.
What you get are eleven drop-down menus, each comprising a bunch of apologetic phrases. At every step, you just select the one that seems most appropriate. Once done, enter your beloved's email address and the note will automatically get formulated and sent to her. The one I sent reached even before I could utter the words 'I'm sorry'.
Here's what it looked like:
Dear, Honeybunch,
I have no excuse for forgetting to be sensitive to your mood.
I was dealing with a crisis at the office, and thought it would take care of itself.
So I'm super tense, hoping you don't
banish me to the couch for a month. Please letme make it up to you.
I'll make you dinner for a month.
love,
Your loving Significant Other
Whether the few typos are intentional or not, they somehow make the note seem all the more convincing.
The site claims to have sent over 18 million letters.
Now we know why.
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Logophilia - Home of the Word Spy
Often, you hear a word that sounds so new-fangled you can tell outright it won't be found in the dictionary. The place to come to for the meaning of such words is Logophilia. This site is a storehouse of 'recently coined words, existing words that have enjoyed a recent renaissance, and older words that are being used in new ways'.
Diff-ability, for example, is 'A disability, especially one that causes or encourages the person to develop different or special abilities.' It follows that a person who develops this condition would not be disabled, but diff-abled.
Each word's definition is accompanied by a backgrounder shedding light on its origin and any piece of literature or a newspaper clipping where the word made its first appearance.
Thus we learn that bonkbuster, implying a 'bestselling novel that features numerous sex scenes', is a fusion of bonk - to have sex - and blockbuster.
Not just words, new phrases can be found here too. Have you heard of the Goldilocks Effect? It's 'when something succeeds or prospers because it is neither too big nor too small'.
Also find out what's meant by Lipstick Effect and Watercooler Effect.
A Subject Index allows you to probe for words within categories like business, science, computers, culture, etc. And for those who like to keep abreast of the latest catchphrases, it's worth visiting this site each weekday for 'Today's word'.
Write like an Egyptian
If you know how to walk like an Egyptian, the next step is learning to write like one. The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology presents you with the chance to have your name in hieroglyphs, 'the way an Egyptian scribe might have written it'.
Type your name in the box, hit 'Inscribe', and you get a rough idea of what your name would look like in ancient Egypt. When I tried mine, Daniel, I found it represented by a hand, an arm, water, reed leaves and a lion.
Once done, you can learn more about hieroglyphs, that the Egyptians called medou netcher or 'god's words'. Also explore the daily life of an ancient citizen, the importance of a pharaoh, and recent excavations.
Your insights into this ancient culture would certainly have 'mummy' impressed!
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