up, one, two, three! Hup, one, two, three! If you're ready to get your brain in shape, hustle on over to SharpBrains, which bills itself as "Your Brain Fitness Center." Indeed, you can really exercise your gray matter with the tremendous - and varied - information on this site. There are articles and papers, brain teasers, a glossary, a free brain fitness guide, books about brain sharpening, links, archives, comments, a blog and a great media area, as well as details about the site owners' speaking and consulting. My favorite part of this site, though, is that it is substantive, with solid and relatively deep information in each area. It truly feels like it was conceived by, well, smart people, the sort with whom you'd want to do business. If your only goal, though, is to get your brain into its finest condition, you'll feel just as welcome - and fulfilled. So give us 50, brain soldier!

asten your seatbelts and get ready for Turbulence. Since 1996, this site has commissioned artists to create more than 150 innovative works by using existing technologies as well as developing new ones. It's also hosted more than 20 multilocation streaming performance events and showcases new work and conversations with creators through its Artists' Studios, Guest Curator and Spotlight sections. The result is a tumult of sound, color, light and action that excites, fascinates and sometimes befuddles. Some of the work is online only, like Alan Bigelow's charming MyNovel.org, which conveys three classic books in images and four sentences. Other pieces straddle the Internet world and our real one, such as several projects that meld Second Life and, well, physical reality. So buckle up and get ready for something entirely new.

queeze, please! Or better yet, the next time you're at your favorite fast-food restaurant and you're cruising the condiment table, grab one of packet each for the The Condiment Packet Gallery. If you're at one of the major chains, though, you might have been trumped - they already have more than 700 packets on the site, which shows each of them in its full-color glory. You can see them all at once, creating a riot of taste and color, or sort them by 19 categories, including duck sauce and vinegar. Or sort by one of the 14 brand names so you can see just the varieties each company offers. If you don't find your favorite, you can submit it - the site gives specific instructions on what it's seeking and how to send in your addition. In exchange, you'll get a cool pin ... which might just be great for getting those little packets

MARCH 2008

our out of five Web sites are more interesting to the people who created them than to visitors. OK, I may have made that up, but it almost sounds plausible enough to be included at RulesofThumb.org, a site devoted to those homemade recipes for making better guesses. What started as a collection generated by letters that author Tom Parker turned into three books before this site was even a gleam in his eye, now is well-served by the Web, where you can search, add, rate and comment on what appears to be thousands of rules of thumb in more than 150 categories. Whether you want to know how to avoid lunatics on city buses, win a duel with pistols, or recognize a rotten egg (it floats), you'll find this information and dozens and dozens of other fun and fascinating rules at this site, which is definitely interesting to its creator and visitors alike.

lug it in! That's just what you can do at Tesla Downunder, an Australian site detailing nearly 200 high voltage and other projects. Up front I need to confess that I have no idea what much of this stuff is or how it works. But the site's owner clearly does, and he wants to share it with the world. Don't come here looking for cool graphics and fancy Flash. This is a downhome site focused on the experiments, how they were done, and how to do them, complete with photos and descriptions. You can learn how to make everything from lasers to "antigravity machines," can crushers to a Tesla Christmas tree. Even if you don't understand what much of this means, it's easy to get excited by the sheer enthusiasm of the site owner, Peter, who describes himself as a "50-something year old first year university physics dropout." So if you have a hankering to try some of these experiments or just want to live vacariously through Peter, this is the place to plug yourself in.

hen you buy electronics, you always want good value. One way to get it is to visit Walyou, a site devoted to fun, interesting and easy to read information about technology and the Internet. What started as a site to provide after purchase warranty information has itself found value in a blog that shares news and views about a variety of technology gadgets and geegaws. One day when I visited they reviewed colorful boxes that have their own personalities that give you something you can hug (or juggle if you have a few of them), sort of a friend-in-a-box. More than a thousand visitors have added their own comments to the blog's original reviews and articles, in nine categories that include How to and Hacks, Customer Experience, and Software and Add-ons. There are all sorts of ways you can juggle the information and funnel it to yourself, because, despite its technological focus, the site has the friendly feel of a real community. And that's value - or make that "Walyou."

rab your shaker! If there ever were a place to get the most out of salt, it'd be the Salt Institute. You may not think much about the sodium you put on your food daily, but there's a whole industry behind this key substance, which the site says each of the earth's 5.9 billion inhabitants use every day. The site has tons of salt facts, from frequently asked questions, to information about the industry in nations around the world, to salt news, to a special area for Salt Institute members only. You can learn how salt is refined, how it affects your health and diet, the difference between table and kosher salt, and just how good salt is as a road deicer. Did you know how salt is used in animal nutrition? Water conditioning? Glass and metal refining? There's a curriculum for teachers, and even an RSS feed for people who want more salt in their Internet diet. With this site at your fingertips, this site can add a lot of flavor to your knowledge about one of the world's most popular commodities.

FEBRUARY 2008

f you want to find someone on the Web, ask Spock . I stumbled upon this site in its beta state (which means they're letting people test drive it), and have to admit they may be onto something here, because Spock makes it especially easy to tap into networks you may already be using. It's a little spooky, too, but not enough to keep me from signing up. Once you decide to take the plunge, you allow Spock to dip into your Outlook or Outlook Express address book (gulp!) to find anyone at Yahoo, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Gmail, Microsoft Hotmail, AOL or myspace. You choose the services one by one, give them your log in and wait while Spock, well, probes your address book. Then you can choose which of those people you matched in each service to contact, add some information about yourself, and voila! you've been assimilated. Now you, too, can be found more easily online.

oolsville! Anyone who loves the 1950s will feel that way about Fifties Web, a loving tribute to the era of sock hops and James Dean, "I Love Lucy" and the King (as in the one and only Elvis). Carefully compiled by former journalist Candace Rich, the site is, well, an embarassment of period riches. You'll find '50s slang, lists of the dearly (and not-so-dearly) departed since that era, '50s fashion, TV, music and games; decor, fads, Burma Shave signs and so much more. Rich has been compiling this information and sharing it with a deft touch since 1996, eager to tell the real story of an era of limitless dreams and dynamite ducktails. Along with the now ubiquitous Google ads (after all, there's nothing wrong making a 2008-era buck!), you'll find memories of real depth and appreciation, with photos and text from way-back-when. And that's really cool!

ou can change the world. If you ever thought that was just talk, now you can prove it's true through the site Kiva. Devoted to enabling "loans that save lives," Kiva allows anyone who has access to a computer to be part of the powerful microloan movement. As has now been proven over and over, what to some people is a small amount of money - say, a couple hundred dollars - can make a huge difference in someone's life. Working with lending organizations around the globe, Kiva helps regular folks loan money to other regular folks to buy livestock, materials and otherwise elevate themselves to a new level financially and personally. The week I visited, more than 600 loans were established and more than 800 paid back. Now that's power to make the world a better place!

ot a minute? OK, what about five? That's all it takes to learn some important lessons at 5min Life Videopedia. The creators of the site - some software developers in Israel - believe that everyone is an expert in something, and that that something can be explained in just five minutes through short videos. Part of what makes this site work is its Smart Player, which allows viewers to watch videos in slow motion - even frame by frame - zoom in and out, and more. It also helps the video creator make a storyboard to help others better understand the demonstration. There are 20 categories, including Art, Food, Pets and Wheels, where you can learn - and share - things like how to convert a file to Quicktime or how ot play the drums. Fortunately, there are also lots of videos on running a camera, so the next time I have five minutes ....