Website Wednesday

They say that 3:30 a.m. is suicide watch time since more people attempt it at this hour. Perhaps they shouldn’t have shows like Keith Olbermann's Countdown on near that time. Especially when he’s talking about the attempt to whitewash the torture done to suspected terrorists after the World Trade Center bombing and our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of course, it probably doesn’t help to channel switch to Countdown from a PBS documentary about the U.S. genocide against our indigenous population, the American Indian.

Sort of makes you want to puke. But then, ever the Pollyanna, I must look at the bright side: a year ago and before, all I would hear were apologists for torture weaving their twisted, sick, illogic and spinning it out on national television. At least, with Olbermann, he says: Hey, folks, this is wrong. We’re not looking at the two sides here. Some things are just plain wrong. Small, fragile comfort; but some comfort.

And on to Website Wednesday:

Let’s keep it simple and fun today with Games for the Brain:

http://www.gamesforthebrain.com/

These are short games, good time-fillers which have you think rather than just clicking the arrow keys (Are there even games out there today for which the keys W, A, S, D, and Z to fire are still needed?*)

Some of the games are:
1. Dragger is a jigsaw puzzle without the “cheat” picture available so you can see the desired outcome.
2. Guess the Colors is the perennial Mastermind game where you have 9 chances to put colored balls in the right order.
3. The Image Quiz was tough for me. You are given an assortment of related pictures and three chances to guess the right answer. After you’re third wrong guess, the answer is mercifully given. Hint: Don’t eliminate the obvious.
4. Chinese Checkers is really that old game where you jump balls around a board in order to eliminate all but one.
5. Mahjongg Solitaire wants you to pair and then eliminate all the mahjongg tiles. The tiles are large enough to see the intricate symbols.
6. Marsmoney is a cute adding game for kids as a twist on “Who has more money?” since it's played with Martian money.
7. In Memocoly, colors flash in order and then you remember the order and press the colors. Of course, it starts with only three flashes and continues up.

Additionally, there are a series of word games.

Philipp Lenssen developed the site. BBC Click (which is connected to the BBC) has a nice review: From Suduko to jigsaws to word puzzles and more, there are plenty of brain busting time wasters here for you to enjoy. It is not terribly sophisticatedly presented, but that does not stop it being plenty of fun and nice and quick to load for you narrowband surfers. On the opening page just click the link to the game you want to try. There are tests for your memory, your logic and strategy. Once you select a game the instructions are very clear and simple, and you will be told whether you are right or not after submitting your answer. When you have had enough you can switch to a new game using the links that are now at the bottom of the page.

Enjoy.

*Bonus: Sneeze at http://www.routesgame.com/games/?challengeId=2 has you using the arrow keys and the space bar to sneeze on as many people as possible in order to spread swine flu. What an inappropriate game! What poor taste! I wiped out 75% of the population just on Level 2. Oh, it does give you a germ factoid on each level.