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This Week:
* STUFF - Best of B3ta
* MORE STUFF - Best of Everything Else
* INTERVIEW - welovetheiraqiinformationminister

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________  ____ __  ___
____/  _)|_  // /_/ _ |
___/  _ |/_ </ __/ __ |      "We're saving the
__/____/____/\__/_/ |_|       web ... together"

B3ta email - 18 Apr 2003

Read this issue in your browser:
http://b3ta.com/newsletter/easter03/

       Subscribe:  [email protected]
         Unsub:  [email protected]
  
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  We're on holiday this week - just like
  everyone else in the UK. So here are some
  old school classics. From back in the day.

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: BEST OF B3TA
  Stuff that's done rather well.

  >> Female or Shemale <<
  B3ta's biggest hit. In numbers anyway. By our
  calculations, every man, woman and child in the
  world has seen Rob Manuel's mucky quiz at least
  eight times. Woo.
http://www.b3ta.com/femaleorshemale/


  >> Kitten Band <<
  Joel Veitch has made the concept of the kitten
  band all his own. This is one of our favourites,
  featuring a bunch of scruffy northerners singing
  Destiny's Child.
http://www.rathergood.com/independent_woman/


  >> Simon Swears <<
  It's Simon. With swearing. Despite it being
  launched in this newsletter we still get sent
  DIYJoe's game every week. Proof that swearing
  is the fucking tops. Yay!
http://www.diyjoe.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/simonswears...


  >> Weebl & Bob <<
  Jonti Picking once made an animation for
  our newsletter. Now he's a big TV success, but
  this is the one that started it all off.
http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/pie.htm


  >> Motorbikes Make You Gay <<
  SpunkyBackpack made this. He never made
  another. Shame. It's brilliant.
http://www.b3ta.com/motorbikes/


  >> Giant Bee Song <<
  Nicey and Joel collaborated on this beautiful
  song about a boy and his bee. Relax with pretty
  flowers, sunny days and the lovely, dulcet tones
  of Joel Veitch singing his heart out.
http://www.b3ta.com/giantbee/


  >> Gay Skeletons <<
  Malevole's tribute to Ray Harryhausen via the
  Village People brought unexpectedly camp
  overtones to the famous Jason and the Argonauts
  skeleton fighting scene.
http://www.malevole.com/mv/misc/tribute/


  >> Maggie Thatcher Vs. Bunny <<
  David Stevenson made this oddity while off work
  with a fever. What's it all about? He's not
  telling and we secretly suspect he doesn't know.
  Very catchy, though, and nice cameos by
  Bez and Sigmund Freud.
http://www.btinternet.com/~david.st/b3ta/


  >> Fool the Shopkeeper Game <<
  We've all been there; trying to convince
  the bloke in the off-licence to sell you
  booze when you're obviously underage.
  Mantlepies turned it into an innovative
  and challenging game.
http://www.mantlepies.com/offlicence.html


  >> Stephen Hawking & Davros <<
  Chthonic's classy cyborg love story
  cartoon, based on Andy Taylor's cover of
  Electric Dreams. Possibly responsible for
  influencing a whole slew of awful electro
  voice-based animations.
http://www.b3ta.com/hawking/


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: INTERVIEW
  Welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com

  Unless you were sitting under a rock last
  week, you were sent the site about the Iraqi
  information minister.

  And then? He died. (Maybe.)

  We got in touch and asked them how they felt.
http://b3ta.com/interview/welovetheiraqiinformatio...


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: OLD BUT GOLD
  Stuff we didn't make but is still good

  >> Cat Enema <<
  Man gets cat. Man gives cat enema. Cat bites
  man. It's the hand drawn pictures that give
  this story such utter charm.
http://www.catenema.com/


  >> Yatta - Naked Japs Go Ape <<
  We don't know what they're singing about.
  Perhaps no-one does. But it's just so odd and
  these guys are enjoying it so much that this
  video became a web phenomenon, spawning
  imitators, remixes and marches in
  San Francisco.
http://web.mit.edu/patil/www/media/video/yatta.asf


  >> Fat Chicks in Party Hats <<
  Genius. Pictures of fat ladies wearing paper
  hats doesn't sound like comedy gold. But
  add captions written by a sarcastic retard
  and it all falls into place.
http://www.fatchicksinpartyhats.com/part14.shtml


  >> Pedestrian Killer <<
  There have been a lot of car games on the web.
  This one works. Brilliant, responsive controls
  help you mow down hapless passers-by.
http://louhi.kempele.fi/~skyostil/archive/dump/fla...


  >> Rate My Kitten <<
  Ah. Kittens. Thousands of pictures of
  kittens.
http://www.ratemykitten.com/ratemy/kitten


  >> I am better than your kids <<
  The web is full of self-righteous people,
  trying to put everyone else down. This bloke
  takes it to the Nth degree, delivering a
  withering critique of children's drawings.
  Net writing at its very finest.
http://maddox.xmission.com/irule.html


  >> Bonsai Kitten <<
  The best net hoax ever played. Fact. This still
  gets gullible animal welfare groups up in arms.
  It wound up the RSPCA a couple of weeks back - who'll
  be the next dimwit to fall into the trap?
http://www.bonsaikitten.com/


  >> Bloke makes faces <<
  Emotion Eric. Send him an emotion and he'll
  try to act it out. Well, he used to. A classic
  internet eccentric.
http://www.emotioneric.com/


  >> Hatten - so much to answer for <<
  Where would b3ta be without Hatten? Up
  shit creek with no ideas. This was the first
  Flash animation that made us go woo. It's
  the daddy of that weird, spazzy style we love
  so much.
http://user.tninet.se/~prv247p/hatt/hatten.swf


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: B3TA IMAGE CHALLENGE
  Results from the Tabloid Photostories Challenge

  Each week we run a competition to test your
  creative skills. We set a challenge and you
  open Photoshop and mess with our heads.

  Last week we wanted tabloid photostories:
http://b3ta.com/challenge/tabloidphotostories/

  We asked B3ta boarder Supermoore to judge the
  entries - here are his 3 faves.

  Supermoore writes "A tricky business this.
  Lots and lots of very funny tabloid headlines,
  but all three winners caught the eye for doing
  something a little different.

  #1 "You can be as clever as you like but
  you'll never beat out and out sillyness, with
  a belly-laugh thrown in for good measure.
  (Bud_Muhnquai)
http://www.b3ta.com/board/1039706

  #2 "Clever. Very very clever. In fact, I had
  to think about it for a bit before I got it,
  but now I have, I love it.
  (Monkeon)
http://www.b3ta.com/board/1036849

  #3 "You just can't beat a good pun, and this
  is about as good as they get.
  (popt_art)
http://www.b3ta.com/board/1035872

  "And a special mention for bobodor. Amongst all
   the headline satire, here's one thing we will
   never see."

http://www.b3ta.com/board/1057371 


  >> This Weeks Challenge <<

  This week, B3ta contributor 100% Gibbon gave
  us the suggestion, "Computer and video games
  that were never made"
http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/computergame/



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: WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
  Follow-ups on previous stories.

  * B3TA PARTY SUCCESS - it was great. We're
    sorry it was so packed. We'll be booking a
    bigger venue next time.


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: STAR IN NEXT WEEK'S ISSUE

  Next week we'll be back with the latest and
  greatest web stuff. Make something cool and
  tell us about it.
  
  Things we'd really like to see include:

  * PRINTER CARTRIDGE BOMBS - there's a lot of
    ink in those buggers. How much can you get
    on you?

  * COOKING WITH MOBILE PHONES - they pump
    out enough microwaves. Can you do a potato?
    Or an egg?

  * CHEAP ZOMBIES - can you pretend to be the
    undead using rice crispies and some
    wood glue?

  Send contributions to http://www.b3ta.com/mailus/

  BTW: If you've sent something in that hasn't
  been featured then don't be put off - we look
  at everything you send us. Oh, and everything
  that was sent this week will be considered
  for next week's bumper fun-size issue.


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  Subscribe:  [email protected]
  Unsubscribe:  [email protected]

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  THANKS: 

  This issue was edited by Rob Manuel with
  David Stevenson.
  Image challenge handled by Denise Wilton.
  Proofing by the Madchesters' b4ta baggies.
  (63177)

  And a special thanks to the guys at 
  makeashorterlink for being so helpful
  last week. Their service rocks.
http://makeashorterlink.com/index.php

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