Looking For Somethng Fun To Do?

Look no further than the Connecticut Office of Tourism website for information on the best getaways in Connecticut. The site breaks the state down into five regions and has a link to 52 Great Getaways. Ideas are plentiful and come with specific interests in mind such as: family-oriented, romantic trips for two, active adventures and cultural-arts and history destinations.

http://www.tourism.state.ct.us/default.asp

FAEQs (Frequently Asked Embarrassing Questions)

The good people at The Internet Public Library For Teens have put together a list of questions and links to answers and information for teens. The list provides the name of the site they’re linking to and the type of person–and their training/background who’ll be answering or providing the information. There are links for questions about health-mental and physical, education, and the inevitable ear piercing questions.

http://www.ipl.org/div/faeq/

Something Fishy Going On Here…

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center is a research arm of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. Their website provides a “boatload” of information on fish and fish research in the Northeast. Be sure to click on the Fish FAQ in the right-hand ‘Highlights’ column for “a bouillabaisse of fascinating facts about fish (and other marine life).” There’s a link to the Woods Hole Science Aquarium which is helpful if you’re planning a trip up that way.

http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/

Bicycle Touring In France

If you’re already a fan of the (in)famous Tour de France, then you probably already know all about the official website for the Tour. In case you don’t know, the site provides all the daily updates plus route maps, standings, jersey holders, teams, sponsors and more.

http://www.letour.fr/us/homepage_course.html

Beijing Olympics 2008

The official website for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games being held in Beijing, China has a countdown clock and is packed with information about preparations for the Games next August. You can read the official news releases, browse Olympic history, get ticketing information, and get spectator and volunteer information.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/

North American Bird Sounds

From cuckoos to woodpeckers, Naturesongs.com has recorded their sounds for your listening pleasure. The site includes not just the calls and songs but all the sounds–such as bill rattles and wing sounds.

http://www.naturesongs.com/birds.html

Read A Book, A Little At A Time

In the fine old tradition of reading books when they were published as serials in magazines…or, if you don’t have time to sit down and read at your leisure but you do read your e-mail every day, try DailyLit.com. Just go to their site, select a book– searching either by author or title, register your e-mail address and they will send you a section (approximately 5 minutes’ worth) of the book. You get to choose the time and frequency of mailings or, alternatively, you can choose an rss feed for your book. If you’re interested in joining a discussion of your chosen title, you may register and join in the discussion forums.

http://www.dailylit.com/index

Wall Street Journal’s Markets Data Center

The Markets Data Center (MDC) is provided by the WSJ and has received a face lift recently. For an in-depth description of the changes you can click here. For those of you who haven’t seen this service (free), it provides a colossal amount of banking and investment information which is continually updated. You can follow the markets at-a-glance, watch the Treasurys, Futures and Currencies as they fluctuate, keep tabs on all publicly traded companies, observe the best and worst-performing electronically traded and mutual funds. You can spy on the International Markets as well as Commodities & Futures data, not to mention the Bonds, Rates & Credit Markets…and that’s just the beginning.

http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/marketsdata.html?refresh=on

Looking For A Hotspot?

USA Today has a website that will let you search for Wireless (aka WiFi) Internet service around the globe. There are currently entire cities which provide wireless access for free–Raleigh, North Carolina is one, for instance. There are also lots of other locations with free access–your local Starbucks, the more generous hotels, and the very best libraries, such as the Essex Library, for one. And there are plenty of locations where a wireless network is available for a fee, such as most airports. The Hotspot Finder allows you to search by address, free or fee locations, and by location type. There is also a list of the top wireless cities with Los Angeles as first with 2,127 locations.

http://usatoday.jiwire.com/

Smile! Here’s A Dental Information Website

About.com’s Dental Care site provides answers to all those dentistry questions you’ve been wanting to ask but never did. In addition to links to dental care by age, there is information about a wide variety of subjects including how to brush and floss with braces. For information not found here, there is a link to the Academy of General Dentistry’s online service for round-the-clock answers to your dental questions.

http://dentistry.about.com/