The Smarmy Carny

smarmycarny.com

Head over to Websites As Graphs and punch in any website. Watch as the script forms a graph of the site. The result? You'll get a graph of the site, just like the one of The Smarmy Carny pictured here. More accurately, the graph is of that webpage not the entire site. Based on the definitions for the colors, it is less like a network map and more like a graph of the webpage layout. Each dot refers to a different tag on the page, including links, images, tables, quotes, etc.

The bottom of the page informs you about what type of tag each color refers to, but I wish I could hover over the dots and see exactly what I'm looking at. I'd like to be able to say, "That dot right there is the picture about Websites As Graphs," but I can't.

Many people have posted their pictures on Flickr under the tag websitesasgraphs. In fact, the site claims that this was the #1 tag on Flickr over the last full week of May. Good times.

The Charlie Action Figure

Mcfarlane Toys announced that they will be making Lost action figures, currently due out in November 2006. The company plans on releasing a few characters at a time in multiple series, including deceased characters. Each character will also come with a small prop (e.g. Kate comes with the toy plane).

As you can see here, a picture of the Charlie figurine has been released. The other characters slated for this first series are Jack, Kate, Locke, Hurley, and Shannon. And yes, that's a bikini-clad Shannon, not a bloody-hole-in-torso Shannon.

If you purchase the deluxe boxed sets, you will also get dioramas of appropriate Lost sets so the geekiest of you can recreate scenes from the show.

Each of the figures will say various phrases (e.g. Hurley yelling, "The numbers are BAD!!!")

You can currently pre-order the figures at AllStarFigures.com at a price based on early estimations. The eventual price might be higher or lower, but you can lock in on the AllStarFigures price right now.

As if that weren't enough, Ubisoft (Myst, Resident Evil, Far Cry, Heroes of Might and Magic, Splinter Cell, and a game based on CSI) is working on an interactive video game slated for a 2007 release. Don't get your hopes up . . . that's going to be late 2007, most likely. The game should support game console and PC platforms.

Snopes.com: Rumor has it.

Snopes is an urban legends reference page that I have been reading for almost ten years now.

You'll be surprised at what's true and what's not. Keep in mind that a story doesn't have to be false to be an urban legend. According to Snopes, here are the three conditions to be fulfilled for a story to be classified an "urban legend":

1. The story circulates widely.
2. The story is told and re-told with differing details.
3. The story is said to be true.

Some stories you've believed and retold others for decades turn out to be false. Stories you've rolled your eyes at turn out to be completely true. Here are some items that might surprise you:

• Does hair grow back darker/thicker after it has been shaved?
• Is celery a "negative calorie food"?
• Do the horses in Young Frankenstein neigh every time they hear Frau Blucher's name because "blucher" is the German word for "glue"?
• Will you get cramps if you go swimming less than 45 minutes/an hour after eating?
• Was a suicide captured in the background of The Wizard of Oz?
• Does eating turkey make you drowsy?
• Does the Swiffer WetJet pose a danger to dogs and other household pets?
• Did Kentucky Fried Chicken change their name to KFC to remove "Chicken" from their name because their mutant birds could not be legally considered chickens, or was it to remove "Fried" from their name in order to seem healthier?
• Was the Titanic screening The Poseidon Adventure when it hit the iceberg?
• Is Jell-O made from bones and hides?
• Was an actor killed during the filming of the chariot race in Ben Hur?
• Do Twinkies never expire?
• Was television's Mr. Ed a horse?

Snopes is an overall great site to spend time on. Whether you're looking for some interesting reading to pass the time or settling a bet on whether Pop Rocks and soda pop will kill you, Snopes is the place to be.

Douglas Adams fans will be pleased to know that today, May 25, is Towel Day.

Be sure to grab your towel and carry it with you all day long in order to memorialize Douglas Adams. DNA (Douglas Adams) fans will appreciate this. For those who may not already know, Douglas Adams outlines the entry for "towel" in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value—you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you—daft as a brush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value.

Should you carry the towel with you all day long? The Towel Day page answers this: " Yes, you should really carry a towel with you all day. You might get teased or looked at weird, but then you can just hide behind your towel until the offensive people go away."

For more information about Towel Day, you'll want to check out the Towel Day page, which explains things better than I have here. You can also find out plenty more about ::wikipedia("Towel Day"):: and ::wikipedia("Towel", "towels in general")::.

Never leave home without your towel, and always be thankful for all the fish.

Coin collector Scott Travers has New Yorkers sifting through their change looking for hidden treasures.

A month ago, Travers intentionally used three valuable pennies for three separate purchases in Manhattan. One of the purchases was made at a pretzel stand in Times Square. Somewhere out there, these pennies may still be floating around: a 1908-S Indian Head cent, a 1914-D Lincoln cent, and a 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent. The last of these pennies may be worth about $1,000. That's quite the change for your 99¢ purchase.

Why would Travers spend the pennies like that? Simply put, he is an avid coin collector, author of ::amazon("0375721274", "The Coin Collector´s Survival Manual"):: and ::amazon("0609807463", "How to Make Money in Coins Right Now")::, and formerly the V.P. of the American Numismatic Association. This stunt will, no doubt, get many people interested in coin collecting that may never have found the hobby. And there you have the motive. It was Travers, in Times Square, with the penny.

Travers has tried similar stunts at least three times before. Though many have claimed to have found his coins in the past, Travers has never seen any of his coins turn up again.

Fat Man Walked

Steve Vaught's journey is complete.

Back in June, I wrote about Steve Vaught (aka Stephen James Liller), a 40 year old father of two. Vaught decided to take action against his balooning weight. On April 10, 2005, he began walking across the United states from San Diego to NYC to lose weight and regain his life.

Today, 394 days later, Vaught walked across the George Washington Bridge, crossing into New York City and completing his journey.

Steve's website should be updated in a few days, but it is running on a low-bandwidth version right now to reduce the strain that the completion of the journey has brought.

Unfortunately, it looks as though Steve and his wife will be getting a divorce. I know that, when he left, he had talked about being happily married and that his wife was very supportive of him and his journey. Steve has said that he will focus his energy now on being the best father he can to his two children.

As I mentioned before, you too can Walk Away the Pounds.

Allow me to begin by giving you some viewing advice for this week's Lost episode: Watch the commercials! Normally, I advise everyone to get a DVR (or Tivo, if that's your thing) and quickly skip past the silly commercials. This week on Wednesday night is different, though. A special game will be launched during the show (including commercials) on the May 3 airing of Lost. (The Brits will see it on May 2 when the episode airs there.)

Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse announced on The Official Lost Podcast that the show would be launching an interactive internet-based game this month. In fact, the Lost Experience Alternate Reality Game will primarily take place online, but will also incorporate other forms of media, too. For instance, the first clue is in the form of a toll-free phone number.

The game is not dependent on the current story-lines of Lost and will extend from Season 1 through portions of Season 3. The game should continue through the summer, so we Lost addicts will have something to discover during the horrendous off-season. Though the story played out in the game is not dependent on the television show's plot, it is related to the series through characters and plots. We know that the game will stay true to the show because Lindelof and Cuse are involved closely with the project.

So, keep a sharp eye out on Wednesday! We should be learning plenty more about the Lost mythology soon!

Update: Call 877-HANSORG and also check out thehansofoundation.org for the first sets of clues!