Did You Know...?

"...today, 50% of all the books in translation now published worldwide are translated "from English," but only 6% are translated "into" English." Words Without Borders is an ezine that attempts to change those numbers ever so slightly. The "...ultimate aim is to introduce exciting international writing to the general public--travelers, teachers, students, publishers, and a new generation of eclectic readers--by presenting international literature not as a static, elite phenomenon, but a portal through which to explore the world."

Lots of Data from a Really Big State

TRAIL is the acronym for Texas Records And Information Locator web site. "TRAIL provides access to Texas State government information contained in electronic publications. TRAIL facilitates ready access to the information for Texas citizens and other users." It contains data from the Texas Adjutant General Service Records 1836-1935.  Sounds like another good genealogy resource.

Movie Title Screens

Movie posters seem to capture us. Many times the scenes on the posters don't even exist in the movie. The Movies Title Screen site has the title screens (captures) from the film itself. Those too can be most captivating. Nearly 3,000 movie title screens are available at this web site.

Security and Privacy On Your Computer System

Here are two sites dealing with computer privacy and security.

The first is Spyware Resources. It provides information about spyware/adware and its implications for the user. It also gives advice on how to clear your system of unwanted spyware. Along with this information it has a number of links to anti-adware/spyware software applications and articles.

A P2P system is not one of the more secure. All you have to do to assure yourself of that is to take a look at some examples of things found posted in P2Ps around the country. Some of them have personal health and family information while others may contain spreadsheets and project proposals for use in hostile corporate takeovers. See What You Share on P2P will let you see just how weak security can be. All samples used have identifying statements and data blacked out for purposes of privacy.

You're Gonna Do What?

Having a hip replacement? Lumbar decompression and spinal fusion surgery? See what it's all about at OR Live. It's like a TV Guide of Live Medical Operations. They even have a schedule of upcoming surgeries. If you want to see the edited versions they have quite a large archive of previous surgeries as well.

Search Engine News

I don't often use this site to discuss popular search engines but two of the four sites listed here are unique (new?) enough to make me cover them.

Yahoo! has shortcuts. Almost every search engine has them. The problem is finding out what they are. Yahoo! Help shows you the many shortcuts available within Yahoo! I'm a big Google fan but after looking at this site I will definitely be looking more closely at Yahoo! for some of my searches. As an example if you want to know how your favorite pro sport team did in today's game just type in the team name and the word score. Not only do you get a list of links but the latest scores from your team show up at the top of the links list. Similar shortcuts exist for finding gas prices, auto searches by VIN, time zones and area traffic reports.

Fagan Finder's URLInfo site is a great source of information for web masters, or blog masters. The site was actually so simple it took me a while to get used to it. I was expecting something more complicated. When you visit this site a simple 3-line interactive series of URL box, and 2 tab/menu bars appear. (There's a brief intro and that's the part that confused me). Start by entering your URL in the info box. Then click on the tabs and menu choices of each to find out who has linked to your site. The searches run from Alexa to Google, Yahoo!, Technorati, Blogdex and more than I can list here.

20 Questions is what the next search news is all about. It is called Next Search Survey and is exactly what it says. It is a survey of 20 questions which will be tabulated between August 13 and November 13 of this year. The site owners promise to have the results available on the Internet by November 14. With the competition growing between search engines you can be sure search engine administrators and marketers will be looking closely at the results that show up here. This is your chance to let the search engines know what you like and what you don't. It only takes a few minutes.

Our final search link goes to ggler. No, it's not a typo. ggler uses the Google search engine and then along with the citation it displays a small thumbnail of the first page. Google provides this type of service with the search link available at the end of most citations with its cached version link. But that's an extra step. After testing this site with searches for which I was familiar with the expected results, ggler only had thumbnails for about 20% of the web sites found. Google certainly has a much higher percentage of cached sites. But ggler is a relative newcomer. Give it time and check it regularly to see if it improves.

School Begins Soon

For some, school has already begun. While others have only a few days left on summer vacation. Here are a group of sites geared for a wide range of subject and age. Consider placing them in your favorites list for academic excellence.

One of the best and oldest reference sources around is Refdesk. It contains more hyperlinks to references than I can name here. But we'll try to provide a brief taste of the links to be found here. Query boxes for three of the most popular search engines, two dictionaries, one thesaurus, current event links, news sources (print and broadcast), almanacs, photographs, and much much more. You have to visit and see for yourself.

The New York Times Learning
Network is rated Grades 3-12. It tends to focus on current events & historical events. But it's not just the newspaper but a collection of lesson plans with hyperlinks to various topics. It's a gold mine of ideas for teachers, a thinking springboard for students.

Both the Library Spot and the Homework Spot are operated by the same parent company and have many similar links. Once again both sites have a multitude of links to reference sites as well as ideas for science fairs, popular classroom questions, links to specialty libraries like medical and law. Check out these sites.

The InfoPlease website also has a great many reference links like all the other sites listed here. I don't feel it has the same depth as the others but that might be a good thing. Many of the other sites are approaching information overload. See for yourself.

Several years back youngsters got a real feel for geography with the introduction of Where in the World is Carmen Santiago. Fin, Fur and Feather Bureau of Investigation (FFFBI) tries to peek a similar interest in young minds. Not only do they go after geography but culture and environmental issues are also a part of the blend. Rather than one big mission there are a series of constantly changing "missions." The few modules I looked at had no violence whatsoever. Knowledge was the key. If you knew the answer and understood the significance of the answer you could successfully complete your mission.

Get Your Cat A Web Page

Sometimes cat people get a little carried away when it comes to their feline friends. This is the ultimate solution. Create a web site for your cat. Download a digital image of your cat to the Catster web site and create a site for your personal cat. You can also track other cats by breed, hometown, and size. There's even room for a profile for your cat that includes: sex, peeves, favorite foods and more.

Two B-Ball Sites

Baseball season is coming to an end and basketball... well does basketball season ever end or begin. That's one sport that just seems to go on all year long. Here are two b'ball sites.

Are you a real baseball fan? Or do you just know the players and their batting averages? This site may not be for you. The Business of Baseball covers the financial side of the game. The site contains data bases and spreadsheets of player salaries, attendance figures, broadcasters, and team-by-team payrolls.

While not as financially oriented as the baseball site above, RealGM provides the latest basketball news. There's a free agents list, a draft simulator, news, message boards, schedules and more.

Black & White Photos of Our Land 1890-1980s

Thousands of black and white photos of our country can be found at this government site. It contains Historical Photographs from the Bureau of Land Management. I say black and white photos because I couldn't find any in color. You can search for something specific or just browse through random images in groups of 4 to 64 at a time. Click on a thumbnail to get a larger picture and information about the photo.

Food for the Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day generally signifies the end of summer and many people will be going to parties held over the weekend. Whether you're the one holding the party or maybe attending, you might like to make something different this year. Here are four sites that can help.

The goal of the Gourmet Sleuth "...is to help inform and educate people interested in food, cooking and eating." The site provides articles about various types of foods and other aspects of cooking. It also contains a large data base of recipes. The site has its own catalog of cooking supplies so it's not 100% unbiased but no one says you have to purchase your supplies from them.

What about making hibachi steak just like Benihana's or the Olive Garden's Capellini Pomodoro. Get the recipes from your favorite restaurants at CopyKat Creations. Not only does this site provide main course recipes but also desserts, pasta, salad and other recipes from restaurants both famous and lesser known. My favorite of course is the White Castle Hamburger. Definitely an acquired taste.

A cook turned Internet geek put together the recipes found at Coming For Dinner. Just the names of some of these dishes are worth a visit. Jim Bowie's Chilled Strawberry Soup, Dandelion Chicken, Page Five Shrimp and Shrimp With Soundtracks. Now if that doesn't sound a little different to you then you can just blame it on my limited palate--remember I'm the guy that likes White Castle burgers.

Our listing would be incomplete without at least some reference to the greatest fictional cook around, Betty Crocker. Seasonal food ideas as well as traditional recipes can be found here.

That's about it for now until the next food grouping comes along. Bon apetit!

Does the Government Owe You Money?

Every now and then the government does something right. This is one of those times. FirstGov.gov for Citizens provides a collection of links that will help determine whether the government may owe you some money. Some examples are links to sites that help you check government benefits, pension funds from previous employers, how to recover value of mutilated (wet or burned) currency, and more.

Photos of the American Environment

I keep tripping over these data bases at the Library of Congress. This one is a photographic collection of the American Environment from 1891-1936. Thanks to Sanford Kolinek, the coordinator of the Chicago Computer Society Digital Imagery SIG, for this great photographic site.

How Much Was It Worth?

When I was growing up my parents would always tell me how they remembered when a loaf of bread cost a nickel. Now I remember when a loaf of bread cost a quarter. But how much would that bread cost in British pounds? Economic History Services provides a data base that allows you to check the exchange rate for the U.S. dollar in countries all over the world. Some of the records go back to 1791. The data for each country has a different time frame.

History Toolkit

The History Toolkit is a collection of short essays designed to help prepare beginning historians organize their own historical research. Some of the topics are: How to Read 18th Century Writing, How To Make a Timeline, Caution: Photocopying and other similar topics. Genealogists will certainly find it helpful but so will anyone attempting to do historical research.

Did You Say Sewers?

That's right. Sewers. At first I thought I might put this one in my "Strangest Things" blog. But then I looked a little deeper. Jon Schladweiler, the Historian of the Arizona Water & Pollution Control Association, has been researching the history of "sewage conveyance systems" for over a decade. While this may not be everyone's top choice of places to visit, it can certainly provide some insight for engineers, architects, and others involved in the development of homes and office buildings. What about the rumors of alligators in the sewers of New York or somewhere else? The answer may be found here. To get the real scoop on sewers visit Tracking Down the Roots of Our Sanitary Sewers. Disclaimer: Any puns inferred or implied were absolutely on purpose.

Harmony and Audobon

Nearly everyone is familiar with the paintings of John Audobon. He literally captured the wildlife of a continent on canvas. Now his collection of birds is available in its entirety on the Internet. The index can be sorted by the English, French, or Latin name for the birds. There is also a multimedia presentation with sound that I have not loaded because I'm on a dial up. Harmony is the site for those who want to see the works of an early naturalist pioneer.

Calorie Counter, BMI, BMR, RMR and More...

All of these and more are listed here. Would you like to know how many calories you burn while jogging, playing the accordion, feeding the cat, practicing yoga, or maybe just sitting in a whirlpool? All you do is enter your age, sex, height, weight, pick the activity from a very extensive list, the amount of time you performed that activity and the Calorie Calculator will tell you how many calories you've burned. It also contains additional diet information. There is a sizable data base that must load so if you're using a dial up connection it will take a few moments. I was using a dial up and it took about 30 seconds.

Just The Facts

If you trust what politicians tell you when they are campaigning, raise your hand. Boy that was easy to count even without seeing any of you. FactCheck.org attempts to keep the facts straight. It does this amazingly in an unbiased fashion. It simply checks statements made by candidates and presents the facts from verifiable sources. Both sides have been found to misquote and misrepresent the facts. Is that a surprise to anyone?

More Genealogy

Here's what Interment.net has to say about itself: "Interment.net is a publisher of cemetery records and materials relating to cemeteries. Visitors use our resources to help them locate burials of their family and friends, trace their family history, and learn something about cemeteries in general." Admittedly the collection is prepared through data compiled by volunteered submissions and is not all comprehensive. But those gravesites it does find contain birth/death and location information.

The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Inc. (IAJGS) was designed to "...assist and promote the research of Jewish family history."

The Database of Servitude and Emancipation Records (1722–1863) contains servitude and emancipation records regarding nearly 3,400 native Americans and African Americans . You can search through the data base and there are instructions on how to go about getting copies of the original documents involved.

Again the Illinois State Archives comes through. This time with a Statewide Marriage Index covering the years 1763.-1900. The site allows you to search and also provides helpful tips on how to properly search the site and help in interpreting the abbreviations in the license number field.

Batter Up!

Lately it feels like this blog is a subdivision of the Library of Congress. They have some really neat collections available on the net and this one is of special interest to baseball card enthusiasts. It contains a digitized collection of baseball cards from 1887 to 1914. Along with the catalog of cards are explanations concerning the history of the collection, the digitizing process and more.

Polish Genealogy

The PolishRoots web site has both keyword searching (powered by Google) and "drill down" searching technology available. Here is the site's description of itself.

"PolishRoots^® was created to harness the power of the Internet to present research materials of interest to those researching their Polish ancestry.   Its most popular features are the PolishRoots SurnameSearch™, which allows users to register surnames they are researching, translated entries from the Slownik Geograficzny, a 19th Century Polish gazetteer covering present and former territories within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and a variety of databases such as PNA Lodges and Galician Vital Records availability."

A Really Big Library

The Library of Congress is probably the single largest depository of data next to the Internet. The library has many special collections.

The American Memory Collection is just one of them. It is more like a collection of collections. It contains dozens (hundreds?) of individual collections from Adams, Ansel - Japanese-American Internment - Photographs - 1943 to Wright Brothers ~ Multiformat ~ 1881-1952. If you are a historian, teacher, or History Channel junkie you'll want to visit this site for historical documents on the events and people of our country's history.

One of the Library's links is called Portals To The World. This site provides links to electronic resources from all over the world.

Election Contributions

If you've ever contributed more than $200 to a political candidate you are probably in this data base. The site is called: Fundrace. I won't try to explain how it's done but if you'd like further info on that you can go to a PCWorld article (8/10/04) titled: "Click to See Your Neighbors' Politics." If public notice of your contributions doesn't bother you because you think your name is too common, think again. The data base also displays the contributor's address, along with career, and a few other things. It's a roundabout way of getting addresses of celebrities since many of them make large political contributions.

Spicy Web

This site specializes in hot, spicy food. Spicy Cooking contains spicy recipes from all over the world. It doesn't stop there however. Until recently spicy food was thought to be bad for you, bringing on ulcers and all sorts of other illnesses. Now it seems that instead of being bad spicy foods can actually be beneficial. Recipes, health information abound at this wonderful site. (I like spicy food. Can you tell?)

Quality Health Check

"The Joint Commission has had a longstanding commitment to providing meaningful information about the comparative performance of accredited organizations to the public... Quality Check is a comprehensive guide to the nearly 16,000 Joint Commission-accredited health care organizations and programs throughout the United States."

To Boldly Go

No, this is not about any of the Star Trek Generations. What we have here is the real deal. The Apollo Image Gallery has recent digitally enhanced photos and data depicting the United States effort to land a man on the moon. Photographs cover the history of the great undertaking from the early 1960s through the Saturn project and other post Apollo events. These were the original space adventurers to boldly go.

Komando's 10 Commandments

For those that don't know her, Kim Komando is a computer guru with a syndicated radio program that is broadcast over dozens of stations each week. She has her own web site and three separate newsletters. In one of her newsletters she discusses her 10 Commandments for Kids Online. You can find these 10 Commandments in English and Spanish at her web site. The commandments are set up like a contract in a pleasant school room graphic display and there is space for child and parent signatures. The rules she sets down are definitely in the best interests of the child and the wording is such that parents and children can easily understand what is expected on both sides.

Sleeping In Airports

The Budget Traveller's Guide to Sleeping in Airports is a web site all frequent air travelers should have in their favorites list. By use of anecdotal reports from real air travelers, over 550 cities and their airports are rated for comfort, courtesy and other characteristics. While the reviews are not scientific they are apparently real evaluations from real customers. Airports, pay attention.

MSN Begins Testing Its New Search Technology

Microsoft has now provided Internet users with a Search Technology Preview. Right now it doesn't look like much. The page is pretty plain with a request from Microsoft for feedback on what's available so far. I get tired of hearing folks trash Microsoft all the time but I certainly hope the finished product will be more comprehensive than what the folks from Redmond have presented here. No date, no size, no help at this point.

For a more complete review of the site so far visit Tara Calishain's ResearchBuzz! review. Ms. Calishain is the co-author of the book Google Hacks, and a new book, Web Search Garage: The Definitive Guide on How to Best Search the Internet scheduled for release sometime this month. She knows Internet searching and I recommend her website to all serious researchers.

Time for some Serious Searching

LLRX is a free web journal "...dedicated to providing legal, library, IT/IS, marketing and administrative professionals with the most up-to-date information on a wide range of Internet research and technology-related issues, applications, resources and tools..." Even though it tends to focus on the legal community, many of its articles are useful beyond the narrow scope of the law.

The Gumshoe Librarian: "Where In The World Is..." is an article in a recent issue. It has a listing of databases and search tools for the academic scholar, the political activist, and maybe even a couple of lawyers might find some of these databases interesting.  The categories are: Foreign/Comparative Law, Search Engines, Global News Portals, Business and Financial Data, Finding People, Businesses, Places and Specialized Services, Who Runs What, Public Records, Government Data, Country & Corporate Information, Websites for International Research, Translating Documents, Expert Witness Databases, Campaign Finance Info, Professional Licenses, and Journalist Resources.

Be sure to visit the LLRX table of contents regularly for other articles of interest. I like a column written by the Grammar Goddess myself.

International Search Engines and Databases

This site contains a list of over 2,000 country-based search engines from over 200 countries. For primary info from search engines that specialize geographically be sure to visit: Country-based Search Engines.

Finding Information In Blogs

Blogs can focus on anything or nothing in particular. They can be objective or very personal. If you are looking for a blog with a particular focus, Blogdigger is the search engine to help you find what you're looking for.

Genealogy Sources

Periodically I run across a bunch of sites that revolve around a given topic. This time the topic is genealogy. Rather than create a separate post for each of them I will list them all. Whenever possible the hyperlink title will provide appropriate descriptions.

Alabama Department of Archives & History (ADAH) Civil War Service Database (A-L) and still growing.

Alberta (Canada) Heritage Digitization Project--Our Future, Our Past.

Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center --sponsored by The American Red Cross

Association of Professional Genealogists

Augusta Chronicle Archives--Goes back to 1821 but charges a fee for use.

Australian Family History and Genealogy on the Internet--National Library of Australia

British Ancestors Family History Service--No Find No Fee

Archdiocesan Archives of New Orleans (Louisiana)

No Child Left Behind

The School Information Partnership has provided access to the No Child Left Behind data--at least some of it. The user can pick a state from a map or drop down list and view the records of schools in that state. Unfortunately all information on all schools in all states is not complete. Data is currently available for a little more than half the states.

Where To Find The Heavenly Bodies

When is the next full moon? Will Mars be visible in the sky tonight? Are there any comets currently visible? These and other questions about the night sky can be answered at Current Sky Information. It provides very precise astronomical directions on how to find the particular planet you may be seeking. The site limits itself to the solar system from what I can see so far. It appears to be a monthly report.

9-11 Report Online

The final report of the 9-11 commission is now available online. You can download it as a single PDF file (4.4 MB, 585 Pages) or just parts of it. This is a government site and there are a number of links to accessing the report. You can purchase the report online or you can locate the report in a Federal depository library. These libraries are usually local libraries designated to receive all major, and many minor, government publications. Check with your local library first or just use the hyperlink at the bottom of this web page to find the nearest library to you.