The Principality of Sealand

The Principality of Sealand is a small nation located on a derelict sea fort of the coast of Great Britain. Maybe. It depends on who you ask. If you ask the folks on Sealand they will tell you that they are a sovereign nation, and that England has even implicitly recognized their sovereignty in the past. If you ask every other nation on Earth they'll tell you that those guys are crazy. Sealand is the most well known micronation, a small entity that claims to be a nation but that is generally not recognized as such. Sealand arguably has a better claim to sovereignty than most micronations but I doubt they'll be getting a seat in the UN any time soon.

Anyway that link up there is their official site. It's got info on Sealand's history and buy stuff. They sell coins, stamps, and even titles of nobility. The perfect birthday present for the royalty in your life. Check it out.

Sodaplay

It's a special birthday post! Whose birthday? Mine! I was born twenty-one years to the minute before this post goes up. So to celebrate my birthday you get a special blog post. You're welcome.

Sodaplay was one of the first cool websites I found on the internet about a decade ago when I first got regular internet access. It's been going on ever since, and I still think it's cool. Sodaplay lets you build virtual machines out of muscle-like parts that can move, make music, and more! If you can't figure out how to build stuff you can check out the Sodazoo and look at the cool things that other users have build. It sure brings back memories. Check it out.

Atlas Obscura

Atlas Obscura is a website detailing all of the weird and wonderful places to be found across the world. From abandoned Incan ruins to a cemetery for sports mascots it's got it all. You can ever search it by category or location. I learned that my state has a 3/4 scale model of the white house, a massive time capsule set to be opened in thousands of years, and a strange monument built by a mysterious benefactor. Check out what's weird in your neck of the woods.

SurLaLune Fairy Tales

Did you ever read fairy tales when you were a child? I certainly did. I'm still fond of them. They follow their own unique logic, but it's a logic instantly recognizable to children. SurLaLune Fairy Tales is a site that takes forty-nine fairy tales and annotates them, telling you about the cultural elements in them that might not be familiar to twenty-first century readers. If like me you find fairy tales fascinating you should check it out.

Comic Book Religion Database

The Comic Book Religion Database is a database that records the religious affiliation of comic book characters. This is not as easy as it sounds. They sometimes have to go to great lengths to try and figure out what religion a character is likely to be. It's fun to go through and see what religions various iconic characters belong to. Check it out.

Internet Anagram Server

An anagram is a rearrangement of the letters in a word or phrase to form another word or phrase. So Heaters Gonging Ow is an anagram of George Washington. The Internet Anagram Server, which can be rearranged to spell I Rearrangement Servant, can take anything you like an find you tons of anagrams for it. Its takes a bit, but it'll spit them out eventually. There are options for more precise searches and even anagrams from other languages! It's fun, although I can't guarantee that it will reveal any universal truths like the site says. Check it out.

Face of the Future

Face of the Future is a website that allows you to take pictures of faces and morph them in various way. It's easier to show than tell, let me show you a few ones I did.

You can take a picture with a face in it



















And change its race


















Or its age

















Or even do weirder things




































As you can see the quality of the output varies depending on whose picture you use and which transformation you select. Some of these came out great, but I couldn't get a single pic of female Bush that didn't look horrible. So play around with it, see what you can do. It's a fun thing. The site uses Java and the app can take a few minutes to load. Give it time. Check it out.

Bent Objects

Bent Objects is a blog of human-like figures that the author makes out of paper clips and other small objects. It's good for a few laughs. Check it out.