The CIA World Factbook

Whatever else you might think about the CIA, they provide a great reference service containing a wealth of information, updated regularly, on countries around the world. They begin each country’s information with a map and general introduction. Categories of information that follow include: geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military and transnational issues. These headings might sound dry but the information is very helpful whether you’re doing a report for school or familiarising yourself before traveling. The added bonus when reading about a country is the ever-present tingle one gets from imagining how the cloak and dagger world might otherwise use this information.

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

Put Your Kids To Work In The Kitchen

There’s never a better time than school vacation to teach your kids something new…and in this case, everybody benefits. Here is a site with recipes that not only appeal to the fickle tastebuds of kids but are also easy enough for them to prepare. There are recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner
http://www.easy-kids-recipes.com/easy-recipes.html

Docuticker

Docuticker is a sub-service of ResourceShelf which is a terrific place to find a “hand-picked selection of resources, reports and publications from government agencies, NGOs, think tanks and other public interest organizations. Today’s group of resources are from the Congressional Research Service and include documents concerning: international relations, the military and defense, food and agriculture, science and technology as well as national security. You can sign up for a free weekly newsletter or daily updates on the material the goos people at Docuticker select.

http://www.docuticker.com/?cat=57

Celebrate The Differences Between British and American English

Here’s a link to a blog called “Separated By A Common Language” that provides “observations on British and American English by an American linguist in the UK.” It’s not as dry as that might sound, particularly if you read a fair amount of British literature and notice some of the differences yourself. There is a fair amount of commentary to the posts which provides additional drollery.

http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/

Internet Tourbus on Digital Music

The guys from Internet Tourbus are Internet gurus. They know, or know how to find out about, almost anything digital.

Their recent e-mail described the differences between Apple’s iPod and Microsft’s Zune: http://askbobrankin.com/zune_or_ipod.html

And how to, step-by-step convert vinyl records to CDs: http://askbobrankin.com/converting_vinyl_records_to_cd.html

And how to convert Windows Media Audio to MP3 format: http://askbobrankin.com/convert_wma_to_mp3.html

And how to convert iTunes to MP3 format: http://askbobrankin.com/convert_itunes_to_mp3_format.html

And how to fix iTunes music skipping: http://askbobrankin.com/itunes_music_skipping.html

AND how to add music to a Myspace profile: http://askbobrankin.com/add_music_to_myspace.html

How’s that for helpful? To subscribe to the Tourbus just go to their homepage: http://www.internettourbus.com/

Gmail Now Available To All

From the wonderful people at ResourceShelf comes information that Gmail–Google’s e-mail+ service is now available to everyone. It was previously by-invitation-only. This story also provides information and memory comparisons for some other free e-mail services.

ResourceShelf is a terrific source of timely news regarding web-based resources as well as comments and observations about news in the information and web industry.

http://www.resourceshelf.com/2007/02/07/briefs-gmail-now-available-to-alll-other-web-based-mail-programs-offer-2gb-of-storage//

What Did Connecticut Look Like In 1934?

The Connecticut State Library has digitized almost 9,000 photographs from the complete aerial survey done in 1934-the first such survey performed in the nation. These photographs were taken before the 1938 hurricane radically altered the state’s topography but after a statewide road paving project called “Get Connecticut Out Of The Mud”. The photos may be searched by town, street map locator or topographic index sheet locator and may be magnified so you can hone in on exactly the area you’re looking for within the photo. Many roads familiar to us now didn’t exist in 1934, so you’ll see a lot of forest and meadows in the photos. Thanks to Lynne Newel at the State Library for announcing the availability of this collection.

Above is a photo of downtown Essex.

http://cslib.cdmhost.com/cdm4/aerials.php

Paper Forest

Here’s a blog that offers lots of links to paper art in beautifully imagined forms. The links are to sites around the globe.

http://paperforest.blogspot.com/

Glide Effortless

According to PC magazine, the future of computing rests with your browser not your operating system. The pundits all believed that Google would be the leader in bringing computing applications to online users, however it appears a company called TransMedia Corporation has beaten the behemoth to the punch with a service called Glide Effortless. It’s not quite a media manager and not quite an operating system but it offers users everything from music and photo sharing to e-mail, RSS feeds and video-conferencing. This service can be used for free with limited storage or for additional storage there are monthly or annual fees.

http://www.glidenext.com/

Google Gadgets For Your Webpage

  
Free tools for your webpage

 including news and weather 

feeds, games, calculators, clocks and 

countdowns and a lot more.

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?

synd=open&num=24