hegemony rules

I'm thinking that I need to focus on the good that may exist in the world. To that end, this posting is all about the better things going on out there. Now, we may differ on what should constitute "good things," but I think there's enough goodness in this posting for everyone.

• Oxfam International is tapping into the P2P file sharing market creating the first music service whose profits go to charity. It will cost from 75 to 99 pence (pence!!!) a song, with 10 pence going directly to Oxfam. Bravo.

• Someone is finally cataloging all of the payphones in the world. I'm glad to see that in the era of highly mobile telecommunications devices, I can still call 813.355.9885 and reach the payphone outside Rip Van Winkle Lanes in my hometown. The Lanes may be gone, but my memories remain.

• I recently saw an ad online that claimed to have stock charts that were so beautiful, you'd want to frame them. I'm not sure if I agree with the ad's claim that they're "beautiful," but the charts from Stock Chart.com are pretty visually compelling. And, they could make for some interesting wallpaper, virtual or otherwise.

• I just discovered Vivisimo, a search site that clusters the results together by topic. This might be one of those times when frames are useful (see the Lightbox feature at Getty Images for another). Looks pretty interesting - now if someone would just create a really efficient and engaging visual search engine, I'd be really happy. (musicplasma is pretty cool, but its interface is a little clunky. And, what's up with KartOO's odd genie motif?)

• Apparently, we're supposed to be eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables. This is old news, but you may not know that Dole has an entire site dedicated to "5 A Day Fun" for kids. The site itself isn't that interesting, until you get to the 5 A Day Friends section. Especially riveting is Kenny Canned Pineapple, who I even chatted with for a few minutes. For the P2P collector in you, there's even a collection of MP3 files featuring such hits as "Phytochemicals," "B is for Banana," and the provocatively named "Fiber." You know what? Dole really does make 5 A Day fun!