Truth Or Legend Part II

Just the other day I went on about all the hoaxes and myths that are bandied about the Internet. I mentioned Snopes as a good site for checking on these things. I've found yet another truth seeking site. It's called TruthorFiction.com. It's not as extensive as Snopes but has a slightly different presentation of information about your favorite legend.

Who Are You Calling A Skeptic?

Are you tired of people telling you the secret meaning of crop circles or discussing Area 51 like it really exists? The Skeptics Dictionary delves into these and other popular ideas that are untested, unproven or just plain unbalanced.

Factory Tours

All over the country manufacturers leave their doors open in hopes that a curious public will come and visit to find out how it is the manufacturing process works. Well of course there is now a data base of Factory Tours available. Just list a state and a series of factory tours for that state appear. While it may not be everyone's cup of tea, it might be nice to use it as a contingency plan in case that great outdoor vacation you've been planning gets snowed, or otherwise weathered out.

Four!

I am not a golfer but I'm sure many of you are. I've chosen to place this post because I know there are lots of avid golfers out there that can make good use of it.

The site is called All Golf Links and allows you to search by state, city or name of golf course. It also contains a number of selected links to golf resources.

Truth Or Legend

Every time I get a note from a friend or acquaintance telling me about how we can stop the rise in gas prices by boycotting a particular brand of gas, or how I need to be careful while paying for gasoline that axe murderers are waiting to sneak into my back seat (lots of luck) while I'm inside paying for my gas, I want to call everyone I know and yell, "SNOPES." This is the name of a data base of Urban Legends. They probably have the most extensive collections of information about urban legends anywhere.

Most times the messages and warnings I receive from friends are of the legend variety. But once in awhile they have a bit of truth in them. Snopes tells you if something that sounds like a legend is really true.

Next time a friend sends you an email about the guard dog found dead with 3-fingers down his throat go to Snopes.

Perfect Recall

Did you just catch the end of a news report about a recall on your car make but didn't catch the year or model? Or maybe someone at work told you there was a recall on roasted almonds but forgot the brand name. If you're looking for recall information, at least on products in the United States, Recalls.gov is the place to find the information. No less than six federal agencies are cooperating in bringing this data base together. You can look for your product in seven broad categories: Consumer Products, Motor Vehicles, Boats, Food, Medicine, Cosmetics and Environmental Products.

Folding Paper

That's what "origami" means. The folded paper swan/goose(?) seems to be the stereotype for this art. But there are some amazing creations available at Joseph Wu Origami. He provides a gallery of not only his own creations but also the works of others. There are links to origami data bases, diagrams of his and other designers' works. Quite the site.

Are We There Yet

If you're driving a car this site is probably not exceptionally helpful. But it is kind of interesting to know exactly how far it is, as the crow flies, to that next destination from where you are now. How Far Is It provides additional information such as population, elevation and latitude & longitude.

Bookmarklets

Introduction
When speaking about the Internet, a bookmark refers to a web site special enough to the user that they place the URL in a storage area called Bookmarks (Netscape) or Favorites (MSIE). Bookmarklets are similar but completely different.

A bookmarklet is a one line slice of Javascript code that can be saved to either Bookmarks or Favorites. But instead of taking you to a web site, they usually perform some type of action on the current web site.

Example:

A webmaster thinks it's really cool to print with dark blue text on a black background. The proper bookmarklet will allow you to change the background to white and the text to black.

Or maybe the designer chose to keep all text black, including hyperlinks. An appropriate bookmarklet will go through the site and highlight all links.

To find out more about Bookmarklets go to the source for a supply of free ones. When "installed" they appear in your Favorites or Bookmark list but they don't take you anywhere. Then anytime you need to know when a site was last updated you can click on the Page Freshness bookmarklet for the last time the site was updated.

What Did He Say?

The Online Dictionary of Playground Slang is actually four dictionaries available at one web site. The four, in alphabetical order, are: Ghastly Games, Hymns & Arias, Online Dictionary of Playground Slang, and Seedy Songs and Rotten Rhymes. You can search for terms in any single dictionary or all at once. From the definitions the site appears to have a strong bias toward British playgrounds, etc. So you still may not find all the American slang definitions you want.

ASL Video Library Online

ASL is the abbreviation for American Sign Language. The American Sign Language Browser from Michigan State University contains short videos and description of a thousand words (approx.). Many have videos with written descriptions as well. Videos appear in Quicktime so you'll need the plug-in.

Who Are You Voting For in November

This is both fascinating and scary. The site is called FundRace 2004: Neighbor Search. The site contains a data base of contributors to various candidates for President of the United States of America. Your neighbor says the right political things but you're suspicious. Look him/her up in this data base and see how much he's contributing to the cause. This site is available free of charge to anyone with curiosity. The small print at the site claims the data is compiled from "...records filed with the FEC of contributions by all individuals totalling more than $200 to a single campaign between January 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004." It goes on to state the records are updated according to the schedule of the FEC.

Written Tower of Babel Decrypted

This is a language guide to written language. Over 200 writing systems are cataloged and explained at Omniglot, a language guide. It has links to rare fonts, language courses, and online dictionaries. For the student of written language this site is most intriguing.

A Blog of Blogs of Information

Marcus Zillman, blogmaster(?) of Virtual Private Library, has done with blogs what I used to do with my tip disks for the Chicago Computer Society. He has created a master blog that links to other blogs. Each blog has a different topic with links to research sites and data bases on the topic listed. If you're into research sources you've got to visit this site.

Finding the Word

The Holy Bible is one of the bestselling books of all time. People are always quoting chapter and verse. Now you can search the Bible, both old and new testament. Bartelby's has the entire King James Version of the Bible indexed and cataloged. You can search the whole Bible, by book, or by chapter and verse.

Finding a Lawyer

The Lawyer Locator is an extensive data base to help you find the lawyer of your choice. You can search by lawyer name, location (city, state, country--international, firm or type of practice).

Your Military Records

Do you need a copy of your military records for insurance, health care or death benefits? Then eVetRecs can help. The site is designed for Vets or their next of kin to gain access to military records. You fill out forms online, fax a signature verification form, and then wait. Within about 20 days you will have the requested information.

Government Connections

It's all about connections. It's not just who you know but how do you contact them. This site provides contact information about practically every state, department, division, elected officials and more. There are over 9400 web sites listed and the lists are updated with great frequency--some as often as once a week or more. If you've been trying to find the government office in charge of whatever State And Local Government on the Net is the place to go.

Costumes Unlimited

If you are an actor, a re-enactor, or just someone looking to make an authentic Halloween costume, this is the place for you. It is called the Costumer's Manifesto Pattern Links. The site is a collection of hyperlinks to web sites that provide access to patterns of costumes from different time periods and different cultures.

Is There A Doctor In The Blog?

Maybe you're new to the community. Maybe you're just curious about your own doctor. Whatever the reason you can find your doctor here. The site is called: AMA Physician Select. It contains the basic professional information about over 690,000 doctors. Where did they get their training; what hospitals do they use; and more. You can look them up by name, location or specialty. If you're a doctor you can update your information at this site as well. The link provided here takes you to the home page. From there you will be taken to a Terms and Conditions page to which you must agree--much like the form you fill out for your doctor stating you know that medicine is not an exact science. Then you're on your way to finding your doctor.

Welcome to Data Bases & Research

At this site we hope to provide information and links to various online databases. These data bases will cover a wide path. We have plans for listing data bases in the following categories: medical, comics, cartoons, genealogy, movies, books, directories, dictionaries, theatre, legal and more. Sometimes it will be a link and others it will be a tip about a new way to use a data base or search engine. Both are appropriate for this blog. This blog grows out of a disk-based help disk (affectionately referred to as the Tip Disk) I produced for members of the Chicago Computer Society. While all are welcome to visit this blog, I extend a special invitation to my friends and colleagues at the Chicago Computer Society to visit frequently.