Kung Hay Fat Choy!

That's the Chinese equivalent of Happy New Year. Sunday, January 29, 2006 will mark the beginning of the Chinese New Year. What follows is a partial list of sites that will explain this holiday, the Chinese Zodiac, the animals, the elements and more. Many of the sites are exclusively about the Chinese Zodiac, others discuss Feng Shui, culture, and other zodiacs. Enjoy!

All About Feng Shui, Astrology on the Web, China Online, Chinese Astrology, Chinese Astrology, Chinese Astrology Year Chart, Chinese Birthday Chart, Chinese Calendar, Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, Chinese Customs Festivals, Chinese Holidays, Chinese New Year, Chinese Calendar, Chinese Zodiac, Chinese Zodiac, Chinese Zodiac [Ba Zi and Tzu Wei Tou Shu Astrology], Chinese Zodiac Signs, Chinese Zodiac Symbols, Feng Shui Magazine, Feng Shui Store, Horoscope Universe, Info Please Almanac, Kung Fu Magazine Chinese Horoscopes, Legend, Mything Links, Onmark Productions, PhillyChinaTown, Spirit Project, Suite 101: Chinese Astrology, Travel China Guide, Tuvy.com, Year 2006 of Chinese Astrology Red Dog New Year, Zodiac Lore

Trusted Health Information for You

That's the motto of Medline Plus. Here is Medline's own description of itself.

"MedlinePlus will direct you to information to help answer health questions. MedlinePlus brings together authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations. Preformulated MEDLINE searches are included in MedlinePlus and give easy access to medical journal articles. MedlinePlus also has extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, interactive patient tutorials, and latest health news."

For medical information it seems like a good place to start looking.

Searching with a Map

Nearly everyone has a favorite search engine they use. Type in a word or phrase, click "okay" and citations appear. Kart00 is different. It draws maps. Kart00 is a megasearch engine which means it goes and scans other search engines trying to satisfy your search. But instead of simply listing citations, it creates a map of subtopics. The subtopics also appear in a sidebar. Simply placing the pointer on the map subtopic or the sidebar and the map lights the way to new subtopic areas. It's an interesting method for narrowing searches but I'm a believer in the old Boolean methods. Best way to find if it works for you is to try it.

The More Words You Search, the Less You Find

Exalead is a search engine based on the "and" rule. It assumes everything you enter should reside on the same web page. It also finds those sites with the occurrence of these words as close as possible to one another at the top of the search list. There are some preferences such as searching the entire web or just one language. I must admit I found a couple of items out there that never showed up in earlier Google searches. That's not so much a shortcoming of Google but just a different approach to searching that is taken by Exalead. Interesting search engine.

Great Books Online

That's how Bartleby's lists itself. And it is most accurate. It represents an entire collection of reference books at the best possible price. Free! Everything from Strunk & White's Elements of Style, Bartlett's Quotation, Gray's Anatomy, and more. This should definitely be on every student's favorite list and also on the list of anyone who doesn't own their own reference library.

Gods of Many Cultures

At GodChecker you can look into the backward of over 2,800 deities. I certainly never thought their could possibly be that many. But there are. Check out African gods, Celtic gods, Mesopotamian gods, and a whole look more. Some gods are better defined than others but overall it gives you a broad overview of the pantheon of gods we have had on our planet.

An A+ for +Plus Magazine

In my youth I considered math something to be endured. Somewhere about the time I was in college I discovered it might not be a bad idea to start paying more attention in my Statistics classes. Slowly it all started making some kind of sense. +Plus Magazine takes math to the next step. The current issue explores the relationship between the arts and math, the golden ratio (which figured rather prominently in the DaVinci Code). The magazine also contains math puzzles and a career guide.

Preparing for Citizenship

The U.S. VotebookCitizenship Test website can be useful to immigrant men and women preparing to take their U.S. Citizenship test or to a Civics class. In order to become a U.S. citizen it is necessary "to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of U.S. history and principles of government." There are 100 questions that come directly from the official list of the INS. The difference is that these questions are multiple choice. For the Votebook test 8 of 10 is required to be considered passing.

Obituaries of Boston

This Obituary Database is a somewhat narrow collection of full-length (?) obituaries from the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. The dates are rather limited and cover 1971-1974 and 1983-2002. If you decide to try this database be sure to read the disclaimer.

A Browser for Everyone

4ComTech Freeware Browsers carry browsing to a new level. The site contains download links to free specialized browsers. Here is a partial list of the specialized browsers available: Freeware Browser, Sports Browser, Football Browser, Basketball Browser, Baseball Browser, Games Browser, Wrestling Browser, Freestuff Browser, Genealogy Browser, Health Browser, Tech Browser, Lyrics Browser, Diet Browser, Recipe Browser, and Tax Cuts & Tax Prep Browser.

Most of the browsers are less than 2 megs in size. Did I mention they are free? Here is a sample description of one of the Basketball Browser.

"Basketball Browser [1.68MB] is a basketball themed web browser that delivers easy access to NBA and NCAA basketball news. Read hoops coverage provided by ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sportsline, CNN/SI, NBC Sports, and Yahoo Sports with ease by utilizing tabs and quick links. NBA team websites, NCAA Division-1A conference websites, and fan forums are also embedded within this basketball web browser. Basketball Browser automatically finds related basketball links, subjects, fan websites, and topics associated to the current website you're viewing. It features a configurable integrated search engine utilizing the popular engines (Google, Yahoo, Search.com, HotBot, All the Web, etc), and also allows you to save and customize your favorite football websites easily by using toolbar buttons."

Free Email Stationary

Everyone who sees this site will immediately send 10 emails to their dearest and closest friends. This is a given. Before sending those emails, you might want to take a slight detour and visit SwisBeagle Stationary & Graphics. They have a wide selection of free Outlook Express email stationary. If you can't make your email less boring, perhaps you can at least make it more interesting.

Who's Dead in Cleveland?

Genealogists will find the Cleveland Necrology File most useful. It contains local cemetery records, and paid, newspaper death notices. The file contains information from: The Cleveland Plain Dealer: 1850-1975; The Cleveland Herald: 1833, 1847-1848, 1876, 1878-1879; The Cleveland Press: 1941-1975. For information after 1975 there is a link at the site to the Cleveland News Index and the Death Notices from The Plain Dealer.

The Unclaimed of Indiana

With the help of Buck the retriever (see picture at left), you may find your share of over 285 million dollars in unclaimed property currently residing in the great state of Indiana. Enter your name and/or a property number. Then tell Buck to go out and do his thing. As far as I have been able to tell, the service is free. Indiana Unclaimed is a *.gov site.

Searching in South Africa

When searching for info about South Africa be sure to visit Funnel. This site boasts searching nearly 4.25 million pages and documents from South African web sites. An interesting regional search engine.

Adverse Effects

Anyone who has ever watched television has certainly seen a variety of advertisements for prescription drugs. Then somewhere during the commercial a disclaimer appears on the screen stating the various adverse effects that may arise from taking the pill. In case you cannot read the one point font on the screen, the announcer reads a laundry list of possible problems and makes it sound as if the side effects are not much more serious than a mosquito bite. The important thing is to get the prescription.

Enter Health Canada's Canadian Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring Program (CADRMP). "You can use this database to access information concerning suspected adverse reactions to Canadian marketed health products of pharmaceuticals, biologics (including blood products and therapeutic and diagnostic vaccines), natural health products, and radiopharmaceuticals, as reported to Health Canada through voluntary and mandatory reporting measures."

Golf Courses Around the World

If you are a golfer and you travel for business or pleasure, you probably make it a point to pack your clubs as well as other necessities. Bookmark Where2Golf to discover a worldwide database of golf courses. It contains info on the top courses in the UK, Ireland, continental Europe, South Africa, and selected sites in the USA.