Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.www.bluespoon.com/tomthumb
The artist and designer Alex Evans has plenty of interesting bits and pieces on his website, which acts as a showcase for his graphic, video and realtime work. But the best reason to visit it now is to see his generative short film, Tom Thumb (right). Fractal and algorithmic programming ensure that the background elements – such as the twigs on the trees – will never appear the same way twice, guaranteeing an ever-changing experience for regular visitors.
"When trouble visits, it usually has a familiar knock," is the opening gambit in this one-way conversation with the inner reality of Edward J Funkuncle, whose mindful imaginings and spaced-out observations on this thing called life we are privileged to encounter at an entertaining site. Clicking on the sequences of images, scrawled text and sketches unspools a crazed continuum of clarity and confusion in equal measure.
The Italian Simone Legno pays homage to her love of all things Japanese on her excellent site, which trades on an aesthetic familiar from Eastern computer games and anime graphics. Of particular fun and interest is the Supaaaa Sushi Race, where players can choose to be either a prawn, a crab or a lobster, and zoom around a dining table while dodging food spills and cutlery.
In the Dream Kit Workshop, you can build a snare-and-cymbal combination to satisfy all your bass-drum-thumping heart's desires. This smooth piece of Flash programming comes courtesy of the drum manufacturers Pearl, and allows visitors to build a virtual kit out of the company's drums so they can hear how they sound together before splashing out on them. Terrific try-outs for the techno timpanist.
A nifty credit-card-swipe splash page takes you into a series of neat-and-tiny Flash essays on the conceit of pharmaceuticals, and how to trump the junk mailers, as well as offering a good supply of future possibilities in the virtual fortune cookie section. The satirical targets aren't exactly unique, but they've rarely been shot at with such style.
Into the valley of the pop-up berserkers rode the intrepid surfer, who was wowed for minutes of high-bandwidth time at this cut-up-crazyville site, featuring Dr Clock and Lady Purple. Good graphic combinations of text and washed-out colour photography make this little number a visually appealing place to visit for a wee while.
www.nationalfinder.com/fruitlabels/fruits-az.htm
Someone is finally keeping an online database of fruit labels. This gap in the market of collectable stuff housed for online edification has been plugged by someone who won't have scurvy, judging by the hundreds of those tiny stickers – the ones that can get stuck to your teeth when you sink them into a Granny Smith – collected at this amusing site.
A photo essay on the author's journey into the Navotas and Payatas garbage dumpsites, near the metro area of Manila, in the Phillipines, this is a graphic account of the lives of children who eke out a meagre living in the impoverished areas of the city. The stark images are a pertinent record of the environment.
www.hps-online.com/colon/index.htm
After the excesses of the holiday season, it's not a bad time to pay a visit to this site, which will help you assess and re-invigorate all things colonic. An in-depth look at cleansing treatments, preventative measures and the detailed workings of this important, and oft-neglected, organ should provide you with enough stimulus to re-evaluate your excavation workings.
Not for the faint of heart or bandwidth, Sickdreams is a darkly poetic virtual essay that takes you on a moody tour of mortality, and its attendant themes, via gothic pop-ups of skulls and other scaries. It's a perfect antidote to the cloying sugar-sweetness of the festive season.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments