Mousetrap - 80

Accompanied by:
SingShot
For all you bathroom singers who just know that if you had a professional band backing you, you’d be a star too. Sign up, and you get tonnes of legal music with the lead vocals taken out, and the lyrics on screen for you to sing along to, karaoke style. You can also record your own take as well, and upload to the site for the listening, er, pleasure of the world, and get feedback from other members. And, naturally, you can listen to what other people have uploaded as well. (The last bit you don’t have to sign up for, but you will have to register if you want to leave comments.) [Thank you, Naomi Barton.]

Supersize greetings
geoGreetings
You’ve heard of sky-writing, right? This is just the opposite, greetings you can see from the sky. Unfortunately, it would be rather expensive to construct entire messages at oe place, but this Google Maps addict has a solution for you. Simply type in letters, and the site pulls out pre-selected buildings and strings them together for you into a message, and you can then send the link around to your pals. Why? I’ll let the creator explain. ‘I noticed that a lot of buildings in Google Maps looked like letters, and I thought “Hmmm, how could I use that as an excuse to spend even more time playing with Google Maps?” This is the best I could come up with.’ And here’s a message for you.

The End
Exit Mundi
Global warming? Nuclear holocaust? Giant meteors? Flatulence? There’s a massive collection of end-of-the-world scenarios here, from the very likely to the far, far, far out. And no, even the wildest ones do have some basis. The site’s author strives for amusement, yes, but also for objectivity. (That bit about flatulence? He’s talking about the methane ice on our ocean floors, methane emitted by microbes.) He says that he researches all the scenarios thoroughly, and “When a particular apocalyptic scenario lacks any realistic evidence, we will tell you.” So what are you waiting for? Go read. There may not be much time.

Reader suggestions welcome, and will be acknowledged. Go to http://o3.indiatimes.com/mousetrap for past columns, and to comment, or mail inthemousetrap@indiatimes.com. The writer blogs at http://zigzackly.blogspot.com.

Published in the Times of India, Mumbai edition, 26th November, 2006.

Tags: The Times of India, Mousetrap