I was alerted to the website theyrule.net by an FCB employee. The website uses Flash and the 2004 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) listings to show who sits on the boards of directors of some of the world's largest companies. It will then show you what other boards those people sit on, allowing you to view intricate maps of the interrelationships between directors of companies. It's interesting to see how incestuous the corporate world is, and it's also interesting to see what the connections are. (I viewed a web of the directors of the chemical company 3M and learned that four of the directors of 3M also sit on the boards of Boeing, Northrup, and Lockheed-Martin, the nation's largest aircraft companies.)

The website allows you to view popular searches (for example, the business interrelationships of the members of various presidential cabinets, or the relationships between the directors of Apple and Microsoft) and save the directories you create.

In addition to being a good time-waster, it's also very entertaining and informative.