Tourbus pointed me to a weather site where I found out the most costly hurricanes in the United States history. Once there, I began clicking around and so was introduced to the comprehensive reference site infoplease. It promotes itself in small letters as all the knowledge you need, and seems to do just that--with no ads. The first level headings are Almanacs, Atlas, Encyclopedia, Dictionary, and Thesaurus. With its quizzes, glossaries, biographies, pages for kids, and search ability, it's a great resource. (Tourbus)  How things have changed over the years! I visited infoplease again and found it vastly improved and expanded. Just clicking on the Sports tab reveals in-depth information on all the major sports including the 2008 Olympics—and prior Olympics. It is now supported by advertising.

The most popular baby names for 2007 are Jacob and Emily – again. At the Social Security site you can also list the most popular names for any year right back to 1879. (Kim Komando)
But if you really want to get into detail and stories about names, you should go back to this link from an earlier edition of David’s Links: Any interest you may have with (first) names can probably be satisfied at The Baby Name Wizard. See how the popularity of your name has risen or fallen over the last hundred years. Find out trends in the popularity of names chosen for today’s babies as well as a back story for each. …  The best part for me is the Name Voyager (requires Java)--a stunning interactive timeline display of all names at once. (Netsurfer Digest)

“The Next Of Kin Registry (NOKR) was established as a FREE tool for daily emergencies and national disasters. NOKR is your emergency contact system to help if you or your family member is missing, injured or deceased. NOKR provides the public a free proactive service to store your emergency contacts, next of kin and vital medical information that would be critical to emergency response agencies.” Stored information is kept in a secure area that is only accessible by emergency public trust agencies that have registered with NOKR. (Kim Komando)

What do you know about the geography of North Africa, the Near East, Middle East and thereabouts? One way to find out is to try the Drag and Drop Geography Game, where at least they don’t put you under the pressure of a timer. This kind of exercise in schools is probably more effective than traditional stand-up teaching; I learned several country locations from this little test. (Shirley Bruce)

Book lovers or those using books in their research have a fine resource available at Google Books. If it’s out of copyright, there’s a good chance you’ll find it here – in full text. Even if it’s still under copyright, many authors have granted permission for their work to be digitized in whole or in part. It appears to be beneficial for authors who find the publicity is good for their book sales. (David Henry)

There’s a totally new kind of reference material available these days. Called the Visual Dictionary Online, it is put out by Merriam-Webster. It’s better organized than Google’s image search and can be used in two ways: enter a search term or drill down through a visual directory.  Here’s a resource that is truly fun to explore—although (Dec. 07) its nature makes it slow. (Kim Komando)

I was looking for the origin of “to blot one’s copybook” when I came across the Idioms section of The Free Dictionary. They are all here, with an illustrative example plus an indication if it is American, Australian, British, etc. Click the Idioms tab then enter a word such as “nine” in the search box to understand how this works. But there’s more; click a tab to access a Dictionary/Thesaurus, specialized dictionaries (Computing, Medical, Legal, and Financial), Acronyms, and encyclopedias (Columbia, Wikipedia.)  No excuse for not looking things up… (David Henry)

I am impressed with the range of the topics covered and the depth of the information available at AllExperts, which is the oldest & largest free Q&A service on the Internet. Topical areas range from Arts/Humanities and Autos to Teens, Travel and TV/Radio. Click your topic; then view recent answers to help you choose a volunteer expert to ask your question. (David Henry)

Map lovers now have a wonderful opportunity to view and share their detail maps on the Internet using “mashup” technology. Scan and upload your map to Yahoo! MapMixer and with a few simple tools you can align it with Yahoo! Maps so that others can view it, pan it and zoom it. Popular samples on view include university campuses, downtown areas, parks and airports. You’ll need a free Yahoo! account. (Kim Komando)

If there aren’t enough OLLI courses to satisfy you, there are lots of resources at Learn Out Loud, including many free ones. These audio and video titles cover a wide range of categories like A&E, Biography and Business. In Travel there are audio guides to London, Paris, Barcelona and elsewhere.  In History I noticed speakers such as Billy Graham, Churchill, MLK, and Gandhi. (Kim Komando)

One of the saddest websites is Faces of the Fallen, sponsored by the Washington Post. US service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom are listed with photo, Hometown (with map), Age, Date of Death, Unit and Incident. You can search by Age, Year of Death, Home State, Military Branch and Advanced Search. (Kim Komando)

Yet another ingenious adaptation of the Google maps feature can be found at Global Incident Map. It’s “a global display of terrorism and other suspicious events” with a cute little icon at each site – on the day I visited they were all in the Northern Hemisphere. Click on an icon to get to the story. It occurs to me that you could get your total daily dose of up-to-the-minute nasty news from this one map in about two minutes, saving you lots of TV and newspaper time. (Steve Reed)

Project Gutenberg was one of the first sites included in David’s Links years ago and is still going strong with over 19,000 complete out-of-copyright books available. Some of them you can read online, others will require a download. The interface has been improved and is now (2006) more user-friendly so you can easily find texts by author or title or by browsing the online catalog. If you are a good typist and have plenty of spare time, volunteer to help by adding part or all of a favorite book to this great site. (David Henry)

Averages, averages, what do they prove? Judge for yourself when you compare factors for your (or any) zip code with the whole of the United States at Sperling’s Best Places.  Zip code 33624 Tampa is better for unemployment rate, job growth, household income and sunny days per year. On the other hand it’s worse for housing cost, water quality, violent crime and expenditures per student. There are some surprises in store for you here, I bet. (Kim Komando)

Do you prefer the English Standard Version or the King James Version of the Bible? They are just a click apart at Bible Maps. Another attraction of this site is the display alongside of the chosen text of a Google map or satellite or hybrid image of a location mentioned in the text. Click on its name, shown in orange, to see it on the corresponding map. Click on the pointer to read a modern description of the area. (Kim Komando)

There’s no doubt about the power of a well-conceived graphical display to bring otherwise-dry statistics to life. For example, take a look at Breathing Earth, where you’ll find a world map and see a birth icon appear briefly for every live birth and a death icon for every death. Point to a country and up pop its basic demographics. An alarming stat is the number of tonnes of CO2 emitted since you began looking at the map. (Sierra)

You don’t have to be a statistics buff to appreciate NationMaster. These easy comparisons let you quickly determine which countries are the richest, which the most militaristic, which the most generous, which the most educated, which the most corrupt, and so on. There is also a US state-by-state comparison for many factors closer to home; access it by clicking the StateMaster link. You can spend hours browsing these data bases. (Kim Komando)

Somewhere in David’s Links is an item about Project Gutenberg, where you can read older books whose copyright has expired. Volunteers would type the text into a file that others could then read online. How many people were willing to read all of Moby Dick, for example, on a computer screen is probably not known. Coming to the rescue is LibriVox, where books have been recorded as audio files, so you can sit back, shut your eyes and listen to them instead. Sample them online, or download the full book to your PC or MP3 player. LibriVox is part of the Internet Archive. (Kim Komando)

The Weather Channel has developed a helpful new feature that combines street maps, satellite images, cloud cover visualization, animated rain indications, in addition to their traditional weather measurements and forecasts. Enter your zip code, town or city, then click on the interactive map and see for yourself what is happening now and in the immediate future in your specific area. It’s a striking—and impressive--example of the technology of multi-layered images. (Kim Komando) 

Another cool tool with maps can be found at Flash Earth, where, with a single click, you can easily compare the maps produced by several groups. Having entered the name or address of your chosen location, you can view aerial maps, with or without street names, provided by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and some others. See your car parked in your driveway. This is at the same time informative and a lot of fun. (Kim Komando)

Do you know your Life Path Number, and your partner’s? Your birth tree and birthstone?  What about your Native American Zodiac Sign? These and other strange parameters about you will pop up if you enter your date of birth at Birthday Calculator. You’ll also learn the names of other famous people with the same birthday. I even found out how many seconds old I am. (Jim Moohan)

There is for me a most moving tribute to the 9/11 victims at CNN’s permanent September 11: A memorial page. Click on memorial list to view an entry for each individual, showing name, age, employer, city, state, country, location, even a photo or a biopic for some. Click on the header of each column to sort the list accordingly; for example, I chose Country, then UK, to find thirteen UK citizens who were lost in that tragedy.  (Kim Komando)

If you are a poor speller, don’t feel too bad—so was Napoleon. And you even have Merriam-Webster’s Online Edition to help you along. If the entry for your word is not sufficient, it usually has a link to the Britannica site where you can get more in depth using the concise online edition or even more with the subscription Premium edition.  The home page also offers Word of the Day, Spelling Bee Hive, Word Games and Word for the Wise. (Netsurfer Digest)

Where is Cambodia? Kyrgyzstan? Bosnia-Herzegovina? All you have to do to take the Test Your Geography Knowledge quiz is click on a colored bit of the map, and you’ll be told it’s right or wrong (you get three tries for each). Closer to home, click on a US state and see how you fare. It’s private and guaranteed to polish up your knowledge of the less familiar places. (Netsurfer Digest)

There’s a fine-looking museum going up in the nation’s capital, called the Newseum, planned to open in 2007.  Meanwhile, you can access one of its offerings, called Today’s Front Pages, that lets you view over 500 newspaper front pages from around the world. They are changed every day!  Access is via a button on the map; and if the resulting image looks rather small, look for and click the link to the pdf version, where you can make it as big as you like. (Nona Evans)

 What’s your house worth? What are your neighbors’ houses worth? The folks at Zillow.com have combined three internet technologies so you can find out: online maps, satellite photography and massive property value databases. It’s rather slow (March 2006) but worth the wait. (Tourbus)

I find it hard to believe some of the bloomers alleged to be perpetrated by poor or careless English writers; do folks really write and infinitum, a mute point, a shot over the bough and so on? Several hundred of these have been gathered for your amusement at The Eggcorn Database, where you are also invited to contribute your own examples. Several references are cited for each howler. (Netsurfer Digest)

The Guinness Book of Records is a trusted reference work, and is used by Welcome to the North Pole Quiz to answer the question, Who got there first? Was it Peary, Byrd, Amundsen, or one of several others? Try your luck there and you might be surprised at the answer. It’s only fair to note that this answer is still disputed by some. (Richard Clary)

That last item naturally led to the Guinness Book of World Records, which is now fully online. This is the ultimate browsing tool, with each mind-boggling feat leading to another, seemingly ad infinitum. You can propose your own record and have it monitored and tracked online, too. First published in 1955, the book claims a record for itself, with over 100 million copies in print. (David Henry)

The BBC’s Country Profiles “provide an instant guide to the politics, history and economic background of countries and territories, plus their key institutions. They also include pertinent audio or video clips from BBC archives.” It’s like the CIA’s survey of nations but much more easily digestible. Read a brief country capsule; to get more, choose the timeline or click on Overview, Facts, Leaders or Media. (Netsurfer Digest)

Ever wanted to know where is that area code you found in an old note book? Or what is the area code needed to call Podunk? It's all available in your phone book, or at All Area Codes, where they can be searched by state and city. It also provides codes in Canada. (St. Petersburg Times)

The Alternative Dictionaries are a collection of various forms of "bad language" from many languages. At the moment (Nov 2005) there are 2743 entries in 162 dictionaries, from Acadian to Zulu. The definitions are quite factual, even dispassionate, and I suggest everyone can learn something from this site. It relies on input from all over the world, so please send in your contributions in the interest of scholarship if you speak Assamese, Asturian, Austrian or Australian, as they are empty at present. (Netsurfer Digest)

What do you want to know about wine? I realized it could be filed under Culture, Entertainment, Health, Science, even Reference -- all these and many other aspects of the fruit of the vine are covered at the sophisticated Net Decants website. Natalie MacLean is a wine expert and writer, so you can't go too far wrong if you follow her recommendations, which to this novice appear blessedly free of the pretentious writing often encountered from some "experts".  (Netsurfer Digest)

One of the technology "advances" that sometimes makes me angry is when I get caught up in one of those infuriating telephone answering menus , when all I want to do is talk to a human person—any  human, in fact. The Internet has come up with a partial answer in the shape of Paul English's IVR Cheat Sheet, in which he lists the button sequence you can enter on your phone to bypass the menu system and speak to a real human. You'll find bypass codes for well known companies in finance, insurance, retail, travel and several other categories. (George Lott)
Thank you, Paul! I think I'll print out your list and keep it handy by the phone.

Complete Review  has reviews of books that are just hitting the shelves, so you can find out if they're worth your time. But you don't have to rely on just one reviewer--there are links to other popular review sites. If you decide to invest your time in a book, you can link directly to its product page on Amazon. Complete Review has helped me get a grip on my reading list. Now, I only spend time on good books! (Roger Preslar)

I don't know how Idris Hsi came up with the maximum speeds of various creatures/objects that are listed in The Reality of Running Away from Stuff, but since he's an academic, they are probably OK. Hsi's motivation is dissatisfaction with Hollywood's misuse of special effects; for example, The Time Machine "showed our heroes free-climbing up a 100 foot cliff and then racing to safety up a mountain to escape a large explosion." His rather forlorn wish is that Hollywood might get real and use the speeds in his table. Some hope! (Netsurfer Digest)

When you are away on vacation in a small town in Tuscany, say, have you ever wanted to call home, or call ahead to the next country you'll visit? Assuming your hotel concierge doesn't speak English but simply points you to an ancient looking instrument in the corner, you're now on your own. There is an extraordinary mish-mash of dialing codes used by the industry and you had better write down those you might need before you leave home—assuming you can't access the internet from there. I looked at several sites but found the most user-friendly was Country Calling Codes. (David Henry)

For anyone with more than a casual interest in aviation, there's an intriguing site that shows you what's happening in the airspace in the Tampa—St. Petersburg area at Fly2PIE, where PIE is the code for St.  Petersburg International Airport. Superimposed on a map of the area are little plane icons that move as they approach, depart or transit the area. Click on a plane, and its details immediately appear in a Flight Info box, showing the date/time, flight ID, aircraft type, altitude, origin and destination.  If you choose the eighty-mile radius view, it looks like nothing so much as a swarm of ants clustered around their nest--in slow motion. Take your time to understand this display so you won't get too excited if a plane suddenly disappears or looks like it will collide. (Tampa Tribune)

"To be or not to be, that is the question" as Hamlet says, but is that what Shakespeare actually wrote? Apparently not (*), according to a BBC story about the British Library's Shakespeare in Quarto website that allows you to compare scanned pages of various early editions of twenty-one of the plays, and of the sonnets. The story links to the Library site that you may find rather wordy as perhaps befits a scholarly resource. Another link is to another BBC story on Shakespeare's will that reveals how "he bequeathed his second-best bed to his wife, Anne Hathaway." (*The earliest version of Hamlet says "To be, or not to be, I there's the point".) (Netsurfer Digest)

Random House is a respected publisher, and they appear to have a fine dictionary department. They also have a website called Words at Random; nearly hidden at the bottom of that page you'll find a link to The Mavens’ Word of the Day. Every day they write up the etymology of a word some reader needs help with, and which is therefore probably more interesting than your average word. For example, I looked up agitprop, balls-to-the-wall and cheongsam -- all helpfully described in impeccable English. Delve into this interesting area when you have half an hour to spare. (Netsurfer Digest)

I was somewhat disappointed with NNDB; it doesn't even tell you what its acronym stands for, but it does make the claim that it is "tracking the entire world." Checking in, I found the front page loaded with gossipy tidbits about various celebs. Then I clicked on Z in the alphabetical index, and was rewarded with about eighty one-line entries (Name, Occupation, Dates of Birth and Death, Known For.)  When I chose Jiang Zemin, I learned only his Occupation: Head of State and that he was Known For: President of China 1993-2003. The depth of these bios is minimal, apart from some show-business personalities, but this is, after all, a Beta version (July 2005). The (anonymous) owner wants you to contribute to NNDB in the same way as to Wikipedia. (Dick Evans)

What's that wonderful smell coming from the kitchen? One of the best surely has to be that of freshly baked bread just out of the oven. Mmmm... You can't get the smells from Better Baking, the Magazine for Bakers, but you can certainly get the flavor just by reading the recipe. After eight years, this is now a subscription site ($35 a year or a month's trial for only $5 ), but you can sample the quality by trying the Free BB Classics. Subscribers also get access to a wide range of articles, Ask a Chef Q&A, and an archive of past monthly issues. A big bonus even for non-subscribers is the gorgeous cover photograph each month. (Netsurfer Digest)

David's Links has never pretended to offer visitors anything significant about sports, since the media are literally awash in sports coverage, but here is a golfing site that offers everything you ever wanted to know about it and more. Golf Online is loaded with information about tournaments, the pros, rules, scoring and statistics. It also has a helpful instruction section, including tips from the pros; I especially liked the Hot Swings page. There you can see a slide show of your favorite pro's swing, frame by frame. This is so much more helpful than a video clip where the action is over in a flash. The only site I can recommend for tennis is On The Line Tennis; it's a bit wordy, but has all the top action plus good instruction in Coach's Cave. (David Henry)

Here was my entry many years ago: "Have you ever wondered just exactly what happens to the dollars you donate to mainline charities?  One way you can feel more comfortable is to visit the National Charities Information Bureau, which independently evaluates charities according to the NCIB Standards in Philanthropy. Request a free copy of their newsletter to get a complete listing." Well, it turns out that "The BBB Wise Giving Alliance was formed in 2001 with the merger of the National Charities Information Bureau and the Council of Better Business Bureaus Foundation and its Philanthropic Advisory Service." This merger did away with an obvious overlap but may also have been precipitated because of complaints from certain charities that NCIB reports were treating them unfairly. The new website is known as Give.org and is run by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. You can find both the old and new standards by clicking the Site Map at the bottom of the main page. There is no longer a free hardcopy list, but the evaluations are posted on the new website under Charity Reports. These factual reports are quite illuminating. (David Henry)

Anyone who loves words for their own sake may want to visit a site owned by a certain G Swithenbank, who espouses "random wanderings along the convoluted byways of the English language.” Find out the origin of phrases such as "Alive and kicking,” "All hell broke loose,” and "At sixes and sevens" in Expressions & Sayings. There's much more to be found by clicking on The Stories, Diversions, and Links at the bottom of the page. One can only marvel at the erudition and persistence of someone who has gathered together such a huge collection of language lore at Scorpio Tales. (St. Petersburg Times)

If you are one of those who maxed out a credit card during the last holiday season, there is help to be had at Cheap Cooking. Here you'll find frugal tips for cutting back on your grocery bill, cheap recipes and shopping hints, money saving tips and techniques, and a downloadable grocery list and price book. Although my own culinary skills don't extend much beyond three ways of cooking eggs, I occasionally watch and enjoy The Iron Chef. Whatever your skill, you'll get some useful help here. Click Recommended Books to read those who write in about their favorite cookbooks. (Netsurfer Digest)

Question: Which country has the greatest per capita (1) Internet usage? (2) PC usage? (3) University Enrollment? None of these happens to be the USA, according to Maps of the World, a fascinating site using maps to illustrate a wide range of topics. The usual geographical maps of the world, continents, countries, and states are supplemented by maps showing the distribution of, for example, religions, languages, population density, life expectancy, even a tsunamis map, plus some fascinating "thematic maps"  (Answer, under Top Ten Countries: Iceland, San Marino, Canada, respectively) (David Henry)

Word Freaks of the World, Unite! and surf on over to Double-Tongued Word Wrester; it's owned by a professional lexicographer, so you have an inkling what to expect, such as thorough citations. It is "A Growing Dictionary of Old and New Words From the Fringes of English"; some recent ones that piqued my curiosity are Jesus year, Rummy's Dummies, and princess disease. The word Growing in the title means that anyone can submit an item for inclusion, but you may be sure it will be subject to a thorough scrutiny before appearing here. (Netsurfer Digest)

The Cyber Hymnal has the words and music of over 5,000 Christian and Gospel hymns, freely available as a public service. Don't expect a fine church organ to accompany these verses; each tune is played in MIDI format but at least you will get the gist of it, and all the verses are here. You can search several ways and even download and print some copyright-free sheet music. (David Henry)

"The world's largest database of aviation videos!" is the claim of Flight Level 350, a site aimed at aviators of any stripe, but particularly those in commercial aviation. It is a large collection of over 2,000 video clips, mostly taken by amateurs who love the great silver birds in the sky; some Concorde clips are particularly impressive. There are military aircraft videos here too; don't miss the awesome display of an F-18 in a high-speed low-level pass and apparently breaking the sound barrier. You can search the site by aircraft type or by country; take a look at the world's largest plane in flight, the Russian Antonov An-225 “Mirya”.

Flight Level 350 is a sister site to The Wings of the Web, a basic information resource for the aviation professionals and amateurs. There I learned that the six-engine An-225 has a 32-wheel landing gear and weighs half as much again as the largest Boeing 747. It includes a comprehensive and massive collection of quality still photos of all the world's operational aircraft. (David Henry)

I have searched out and removed what I think are all the introductions to individual Webby Award winners on my site (7 of them) and am replacing them by a single website. It seems redundant for me to be touting winners in various categories each year when all you have to do is go to the Webby Awards site and read about them there. Besides, it saves me a lot of work. The winners are highly recommended for ingenuity, creativity, and design excellence; and, as claimed, they are the best of the Web. A second and independent set called the People's Voice Winners can also be found on the same site; it's striking how often the two sets agree on a winner.  (David Henry)

Tourbus pointed me to a weather site where I found out the most costly hurricanes in the United States history. Once there, I began clicking around and so was introduced to the comprehensive reference site infoplease. It promotes itself in small letters as all the knowledge you need, and seems to do just that--with no ads. The first level headings are Almanacs, Atlas, Encyclopedia, Dictionary, and Thesaurus. With its quizzes, glossaries,  biographies, pages for kids, and search ability, it's a great resource. (Tourbus)

Have you ever run across--maybe in a drawer--a book-type calendar (like the At a Glance kind) from some far-distant past year? Maybe it was a gift you never used, or a souvenir you yourself bought.  And then you thought: well, if that year ever returns, I'm in. OK. All you need to find out is what year in the future matches exactly the configuration of your found-book year.  Well, go to Calendar Home then type in a year, or type the day of week that January 1 falls on in that year. A list of years will appear (with leap years listed separately).  Then you will know how many years you will have to wait before being able to use your newly found calendar book. There's a ton of other interesting information on the home page as well. (Shirley Miller)

As I've remarked before, indexing the Web is a tough challenge, and librarians are best equipped to do it. The key to making a portal page really useful is getting its content right and "easy to get the feel of". A great effort can be found at Library Spot, where the structure has been laid out so sensibly, you feel comfortable with it right away. The first click typically gets you to a paragraph describing--and assessing--the next level links. Click the stethoscope for health links for example. (Loraghne Henry)

When you've finished reading a book, don't just put it away on the shelf; instead leave it somewhere for another booklover to read. Sounds crazy? Find out more at Book Crossing where readers and donors come together, virtually and for real. With over 200,000 free memberships and 880,000 books left somewhere and then registered by their new owners since April 2001, this is a phenomenon to watch. Authors can add their profiles and optional photo. (Smart Computing)

A very innovative project is the free, open source encyclopedia known as Wikipedia. The idea is that anybody  can submit an article on anything, and anybody else can add to it, edit it, or otherwise "improve it" -- subject to Wikipedia rules. "We started in January 2001 and are now working on 267378 articles in the English version" (May 2004). The result is authoritative, it's constantly being updated, it comes in many language versions, and is loaded with internal hyperlinks that makes browsing it a snap. You too can contribute -- if you have specialist knowledge -- so why not share it with the world? (David Henry)

Here's a webpage first: Everything you see at the Newsmap site is on a single screen--no scroll bars, no other pages. But what a screen! Hundreds of current headlines are shown, sorted in strips by interest--International, Business, Sports etc. Within a strip, point to an item and the headline, dateline and first line of the story pop up. Click on it and you get a new window with the full story. Come back later or even hit the Refresh button after browsing the screen and see how much the news has changed already. Impressive! (Yahoo)

Looking for a good read? Take a stab at The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time, according to The Guardian. Yes it's a British list, but American writers seem fairly represented at about 20% and it includes many well known masterpieces by Russian, French, German, Spanish, Canadian, Japanese and other writers. The site begs for feedback about omissions of your favorites and may change as a result. (Netsurfer Digest)

It seems like Florida's libraries are going digital in a big way. Not only are they planning to link up their catalogs electronically, there are ambitious projects to digitize documents, magazines, journals, newspapers, books, and photographs. This is all part of the Florida Electronic Library, a work in progress that serves all the citizens of Florida. Kids and genealogists take particular note: there's lots here for you! (Richard Clary)

If you like aircraft -- civil, military, US or European, pre World War One or ultra modern -- take a look at the fine photo collection at Pegase. They have been taken at air shows around the world, and the professional quality images are awesome when expanded to fill your screen. (Netsurfer Digest)

Want to know the cost of the war in Iraq? You can check out the running total maintained at Cost of War, based on estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. In case you don't get the author's point, you can also  use the site to compare this total to things like the additional number of kids in the Head Start program or the additional number of four year scholarships to public universities. (Netsurfer Digest) 

With its great collection of books online, it seemed likely that Amazon would give you the chance to read a bit, and indeed it does for many books. Now they have gone one better and allow you to search the text of their books for a keyword. Type in your keyword in the search box, and you will be shown a normal list of hits. Some of these will show you one or more quotes from the book with the keyword highlighted. (Tourbus)

Which country has the most murders per capita? It's not the USA, Virginia, and there are 22 other countries with a higher rate. (Columbia is top). Who are the most militaristic? (Israel), the richest? (Luxembourg), the longest lived? (Andorra) and the most taxed? (Vatican City). You can even easily make up graphs or maps for your own favorite statistic by using the massive databases kept by Nation Master. The site also has compact profiles, maps and flags of all the world's countries. (Netsurfer Digest)

The Degree Confluence Project is a cooperative effort to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world (on land, that is), and to take pictures at each location.. The pictures and stories are posted on the site by teams who are challenged by the project. Some countries are complete (Switzerland, Bulgaria...) and many are works in progress. There's a confluence within 49 miles of where you are (the nearest to Tampa is near Lakeland). A GPS receiver is essential. (Netsurfer Digest)

There's another wonderful portal site, that has actually been in existence since 1994. This is Martindale's The Reference Desk, and it's a real good looker. In addition to major centers on Science and Engineering (Astronomy, Biotech, Chemistry etc.) there are others on Languages, Cars etc, Computers, Entertainment, Fashion, International... Each center contains hundreds of links, which Jim Martindale claims to update eight hours a day five days a week. He calls himself "the Old Man of the Net - over 23". (Tourbus)

What other famous people were born the same day as you? Check it out at Famous Birthdays and if nobody is listed, see how unique that makes you! Wait! There's much more to this site, for example you can enter just the month and date and get a list of people born then in different years, or find out what happened this day in history, or send a greeting card. With BirthdayVision, for a small fee you can even have a private website created for someone's birthday, full of personalized information. (David Henry)

Who can resist a browse through the Guinness World Records website? It's impartial, authentic, comprehensive, and you can find the same amazing records here as in the book, but with the added advantages of sound, videos and a search engine. Watch one-armed Scotsman Campbell Aird pouring himself a drink using his artificial arm. If you plan to try for a world record yourself, better read the FAQs on the front page telling you how to go about it. (David Henry)

You'd be wrong to think that World Wide Words is something to do with the Internet. In fact, it is a lexicographer's delight, and stimulating reading for the rest of us -- especially if you don't mind the occasional obscure British item. "Michael Quinion's website is the web authority on English etymology (word origins) and usage—come here for definitive information on some of the most interesting, amusing and downright weird words and phrases in the English language." (NewsScan)

As a dedicated chocoholic, I was delighted to find the front page of The Cook's Thesaurus displaying chocolate as its Ingredient of the Month -- but dismayed to read all the tricks you need to know to handle it properly in the kitchen.  This beautifully illustrated guide is a  cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools.  Entries include pictures, descriptions, synonyms, pronunciations, and suggested substitutions -- hence the Thesaurus in the title. (Netsurfer Digest) 

I was struck to find such a serious looking site as the Haunted Places Directory. Those with the interest can follow all the latest reports on paranormal activity, including haunted places, UFO sightings and alien abductions.  There's a whole sub-industry offering ghost-busting and paranormal research equipment, books and videos, courses leading to certification, listings of haunted tours and events and something called Alchemy of the Paranormal. Well, well!  (Netsurfer Digest)

It's interesting to relate scientific discoveries to the era in which they became known, and to contemporary developments in other scientific areas.  For each time slice from 1000 AD to 2000 AD, Timeline Science goes further by setting scientific progress in its political, religious and geographical context. This is accomplished with a timeline describing each major advance and its discoverer in a paragraph or so with a link to more detail, thus avoiding clutter. It's very easy to follow. (Netsurfer Digest)

You can probably define a scam only by example, of which you'll find many at Scambusters.  The top ten for 2001 were Herbal Viagra, Internet Investigator, Pump and Dump, Credit Scams, Auction Antics, Chain Letters, Viruses, Nigerian Fee Scam, Identity Theft and WTC Scams.  Basically, your best protection is plain old common sense - you don't get something for nothing - but there is also much accumulated experience and valuable advice to be found here. (Netsurfer Digest)

Quick, what's an 11-letter word beginning with P and ending with C?(*)  If you're stuck for a word in your crossword puzzle, hurry on over to All Words, plug in the letters you have and you will see any and all words that fit that prescription.  Cheating, you say? Maybe, but it saves a lot of time. Plus there are Links for Word Lovers, Word of the Week explained, a daily Crossword Puzzle and word lookup in five languages besides English. (Neat Net Tricks)  *prehistoric

Many newspapers have an online edition these days and indeed this is true of papers throughout the world. It's the same for related organizations, such as television stations and news magazines. You can find links to them at the News Directory portal, which is blessedly free from advertisements. Foreign papers usually offer an English language edition. US newspapers can be retrieved by area code within state, while magazines are indexed by title within subject. (Chuck Runkle)

I'm impressed with the range and depth of material offered at the Food Network  site, operated by the Food TV channel.  Topical areas include  Cooking 101,  Holidays and Gatherings, and Recipe and Menu Search.  Under Wine and Drinks I found the Real World Wine Review with articles such as Matching Wine and Food and under The Drink Review I found an in-depth article on sherry. They even have  a library of videos showing you how to do practically anything in the kitchen.  (Smart Computing)

There's a fine collection of recipes at Culinary Pleasures, all profusely illustrated.  You'll find six to twelve recipes in each group, such as A Wealth of Welsh Fare, The Flavors of Tuscany, Delightful Sunday Dinner and My Asparagus Specialties.  You can search within the site by keyword. There are also links to other, off-site food based websites that you can seemingly only find by first clicking the Table of Contents icon (Pear), then the Links icon (Orange).   (C.R. Dennett)

If like me, you tend to groan when you hear another "manufactured" word, you'll probably appreciate Buzzwhack, dedicated to recording the latest abominations foisted upon the English Language.  See them listed here such as the verb "to Enron" for undermining the future, "living assets" for employees and "mouse potato" for folks glued to a PC screen.  Read them all up in the Buzzword Compliant Dictionary. (Smart Computing)

Here is another portal site, meaning a gateway to the riches of the Web.  The home page at Fun Time News is a large collection of headlines leading to scientific or technical stories that tend to be out of the ordinary.  Then there's more links, loosely gathered together under the headings Interesting, Science, Space, Magazines, Sports, Kids and Shop at Home.  The Interesting list is more like a page of links to reference sites.  In the absence of a home page button, you'll need to manipulate the address.  (Netsurfer Digest)

The Guardian newspaper has a weekly feature that can also be found at Notes and Queries, where readers ask questions subsequently answered by others - often tongue-in-cheek.  What are the origins of the tooth fairy?  Is bottled water the biggest con trick in history?  Where have all the hippies gone?  Short, pithy answers are common, such as (to the last question), Who cares, as long as they've gone?  Saw both of them in Goa last week.  Mine are still attached to my leggies. (Guardian Weekly)

Charles Vest, president of MIT, rocked the higher education world to the core by announcing that MIT would, over a period of ten years, place most of its course ware on the Internet for free use by anyone, anywhere. Look for Open Course Ware on the MIT website for details, including reactions from the faculty and from around the world.

There is a fine all purpose reference site at Atomica.  Type in the keyword(s) for your inquiry at the top of the front page and you are rewarded with succinct entries and articles, all easily accessible.  I entered Saudi Arabia and was then just a click away from dictionary and encyclopedia entries, maps, local time, stats, geography, dialing code and a dozen links to useful related sites. (Tourbus)

 Those who love books - especially free ones - will enjoy a visit to Bartleby, publisher of Great Books Online, who rather immodestly call themselves the preeminent Internet publisher of literature, reference and verse.  You can find here the Harvard Library of Classics, fiction from Aeschylus to Woolf, non fiction from Henry Adams to Mary Woolstonecraft and a major collection of reference books.

"xrefer is the web's reference engine, a unique service providing free access to the world's largest collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and quotations." You can also place an xrefer it! button on your browser. Any time you want to look up something on a web page, just highlight it and click the xrefer it! button. Pretty cool. (NNT)

Just like Terraserver but better! In GlobeXplorer you type in your address and within a few seconds there appear not only a street map with your house centered in it, but also a crisp satellite photo alongside it. Rather amazing, methinks. (Neat Net Tricks)

Are you comfortable using a thesaurus? Well, here is an entirely new graphical way of displaying similarities between words. Plumb Design's Visual Thesaurus lets you enter a word that appears in the center of the screen with lines connecting it to words of related meaning. Click on any of these and the map reshapes itself with the new word at the center. Better read the instructions first.

The authoritative, complete and free Encyclopedia Britannica is now online at Britannica where it replaces the old eblast site.  Now, unfortunately, there is no excuse for not knowing the facts. (08/01) To get the full article, you now have to subscribe. Still, the summary articles are still free and useful for quick look ups.

Do you know everybody on your street?  Well, you can at least find out their names by using the reverse lookup feature of InfoSpace.  You enter a street name in phonebook lingo (such as Clubside Dr not Clubside Drive) and leave the number box blank.  Infospace responds with the names and addresses of all the folks on your street.  It also offers reverse phone numbers; enter a phone number and get back a name and address.

Looking for answers? AskMe.com claims to have them all, using its hundreds of experts on thousands of topics. Select a topic, choose an expert, pose your question and receive your answer by e-mail or on the website. Questioners rate the replies they and others have received so you can choose the best expert for your query.

There are real possibilities here to re-connect with your high school  Classmates  which has over one million people registered from 30,000 high schools across the country.  Don't forget to register yourself!

If you ever wondered how your car engine or VCR works or what makes a refrigerator cold or hundreds of other topics, then How Stuff Works is for you.  Written in a no-nonsense style by one Marshall Brain and well illustrated, this is how high school science should have been taught.  BTW, the site has just won the prestigious Cool Site of the Year award for 1998.

There are some highly detailed photos of your neighborhood taken from a Russian spy satellite in February 1998; I find this a bit spooky.  View them for free at the TerraServer site, but if you want to print them you'll pay to download them.

What is your favorite drink?  We have chosen eclectic sites offering excellent background on beer, wine and whisky.  Real Beer has thousands of pages about brewpubs, microbreweries, home brewing and news about beer.    The Edinburgh Malt Whisky Tour is the Net's oldest and largest non-commercial Malt Whisky site. Claiming to be the world's most comprehensive wine website, Wine Spectator offers forums (bulletin boards), news, features, a wine library and wine auctions. The latest research seems to show that wine may be good for you, after all!  

  Surely you remember the Information Please almanac?  Well, it's now online, complete with sports and entertainment almanacs, an encyclopedia and dictionary, to put a ton of facts at your fingertips.  And there is also The Old Farmers Almanac for that matter. (By the way, is it Old Farmers or Old Almanac?)

Do you need a quote for a special occasion?  For humorous quotes, try the Laughter site, where the jokes and quips are neatly classified for your amusement.   Example, "Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternative" - Maurice Chevalier. 

There's a neat site called Time Capsule in which you can enter your date of birth - or any date - and find out what other earth-shattering events took place on that date.

Have you ever wondered just exactly what happens to the dollars you donate to mainline charities?  One way you can feel more comfortable is to visit the National Charities Information Bureau, which independently evaluates charities according to the NCIB Standards in Philanthropy. Request a free copy of their newsletter to get a complete listing.