Stirex Ergonomic Hand Tools - Self-opening Scissors

"Swedish Stirex makes a clever pair of scissors. No loops to wiggle your thumb and forefinger into, just grip and cut. Unlike other self opening scissors, this one has no dirt collecting spiral spring, which makes it ideal in the kitchen."

Sperling's Best Places"- "The ultimate resource for relocation, recreation, retirement"

Sperling's Best Places



"The ultimate resource for relocation, recreation, retirement"

Includes health rankings (ie, Worst Cities for Respiratory Infections), a "compare cities" function, and city profiles, including neighborhoods, schools, cost of living and crime rates.

LookLater.com - Online bookmark archive

LookLater:

"Instant searchable bookmarks in your own FREE and PRIVATE on-line archive
* Bookmark links, pages or images
* Automatically save context with each bookmark
* Search in titles or context or browse by date or site
* Tag bookmarks and import your existing tags
* No software to install, just a bookmarklet
* Integrates with del.icio.us, Google, eBay and more"

Voice over Email: WaxMail

Voice over Email: WaxMail"

"Love email but hate typing? Free WaxMail lets you talk instead of type. Your voice messages are attached to Outlook emails as MP3s ready to send to any email address. Recipients do not need WaxMail in order to hear your message."

MeetWithApproval.com

MeetWithApproval.com
A great idea for meetings, parties, friends, reunions, weekends, corporate events:

Arrange a meeting or event. Work out which day is good for everyone & keep track of who is coming.
'Meet With Approval' could not be simpler. Fill out the form which creates a meeting page. Your friends or colleagues are notified of the event. They visit the meeting page and help decide a good date. When you are all happy, 'Meet With Approval' confirms the arrangement and you all meet up.

Best of all it's FREE!"

Rallypoint - Online Collaboration

Rallypoint - Online Collaboration:

"Rallypoint is a powerful online collaboration service that can be used to create, organize and share your company's knowledge. It enables you to build web-based documents and pages to share with your team members or other teams. Some of the things you can do with Rallypoint include...

• Create and share online pages with team members, across the hall or across the globe.
• Tag your pages with labels to cleanly organize them in multiple locations.
• Define user and group access to your pages including editors, viewers and subscribers.
• Speed page creation with private and public templates.
• Create collections of your favorite pages around any subject matter.
• Quickly find pages with a powerful built-in search engine.
• Subscribe to page updates to stay informed about topics that interest you.
• Find similar pages and information you and your team never knew existed.
• Embed images, flash and media directly into your pages.
• Attach documents such as Word and Excel to your pages to secure access to those documents."

grocerylists.org | The Grocery List Collection

Includes a best of 2005 list, as well as guides to coupons, promotions and other money-saving tips.

>grocerylists.org

Editor & Publisher - Newspaper Industry Information - News Media Analysis - Newspaper Business News

"Editor & Publisher is the authoritative journal covering all aspects of the North American newspaper industry, including business, newsroom, advertising, circulation, marketing, technology, online and syndicates."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/index.jsp

Superpatron

Superpatron: "Superpatron is a weblog for library patrons who love their libraries, who take advantage of everything they have to offer, and are always on the lookout for great ideas that libraries around the world are doing."

Lists: 2005 - The best-of the best-ofs

It's a meta list - a list of lists of the best of 2005 best-ofs. Check it out...

Howstuffworks "How Christmas Works"

Howstuffworks "How Christmas Works": "How Christmas Works"

Forbes.com Best of the Web

Forbes Best of the Web: Reference

http://www.forbes.com/bow/b2c/category.jhtml?id=73



The billions of pages on the Internet contain almost anything you would wish to know; unfortunately, search engines can only go so far. Our favorites in this category give some order to the chaos, many with helpful search techniques, answers to common research questions and more. The best sites, which make finding that perfect word or fact a breeze, will renew your faith in the power of cyberspace

Bolivia current local time

Bolivia current local time

"Look up current time from database containing any country or major city in the world. Displays the time, the GMT offset, a globe image, and a section map. Features a world time calculator and a freeware utility to synchronize your PC with an atomic clock."

Bad Vibes - University of Salford

"Fingernails scraping down a blackboard... the scream of a baby... your neighbour’s dog barking: what is the worst sound in the world? This is what a new website from Salford University is trying to find out. The aim of the website is to increase awareness of sound psychology, by examining what makes a sound unpleasant to hear. Your votes on the site will also give us an insight into what is the worst sound in the world, and maybe why it is the worst sound. The format of the website is similar to other voting websites (like amihotor not), so click the link, audition some sounds, and let us know how horrible they are; you might even what to download one of our horrible ringtones."

http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/news/news3.htm

FoodieView - The Recipe Search Engine

FoodieView - The Recipe Search Engine: "Why search for recipes one site at a time when you can search them all here? We scour the web to find the best recipes on the web's most popular recipe sites."

Texas Happy Hours

Queen of Clubs: "Check out the newest web site called www.TexasHappyHours.com and find out information and pricing for over 130 bars all over Houston. If you are looking for the happy hours for a specific day of the week in a certain area of town, just go to www.TexasHappyHours.com and click on the day of the week. Then, either browse all the listings for that day, or click on an area of town to narrow down the listings. Don't see your favorite bar? That's easy to fix, send www.TexasHappyHours.com information and it will be posted within a few days. www.TexasHappyHours.com makes every effort to ensure that the hours are the most current. Each listing has pertinent happy hour information as well as the last time the facts were updated. Texas Happy Hours periodically emails establishments to verify that their information is the most current, and forums are soon to come. Be sure to check it out the next time you meet your friends for happy hour. 6� Lounge is mentioned on the site, so I love it, already!"

Carmel Mobile Library Services in Kenya

What a terrific idea! Shipping books via camel makes my wobbly-wheeled bookcart seem high-tech, but if the shoe fits...



Carmel Mobile Services: "KENYA NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICE (KNLS)

CAMEL MOBILE LIBRARY SERVICE IN KENYA



INTRODUCTION



The Camel Library Service is a library outreach program for people who are unable to use the static libraries in marginal areas in the country. The Kenya National Library Service launched it on October 14th 1996, and it is operational in Garissa town in North Eastern Province of the country. Following its successful implementation, the program was replicated in Wajir town on April 13th 1999. The Camel Library Service is meant to serve the Pastoralists in these areas which are geographically isolated because they experience difficulties in using directly the available library facilities at the static library branches."

The 5th Annual Year in Ideas - New York Times

The 5th Annual Year in Ideas - New York Times: "This issue marks the fifth anniversary of what is becoming a venerable tradition at the magazine: The Year in Ideas. As always, we seek to gain some perspective on what has transpired since January by compiling a digest of the most noteworthy ideas of the past 12 months. Like the biographer Lytton Strachey surveying the Victorian Age, we row out over the great ocean of accomplishment and lower into it a little bucket, which brings up to the light characteristic specimens from the various depths of the intellectual sea - ideas from politics and science, medicine and law, popcorn studies and camel racing. Once we have thrown back all the innovations that don't meet our exacting standards, we find ourselves with the following alphabetical catch: 78 notions, big and small, grand and petty, serious and silly, ingenious and. . . well, whatever you call it when you tattoo an advertisement on your forehead for money."

Discover Music - Pandora

Discover Music - Pandora:

Boing Boing: Q-Unit: Queen and 50-Cent mashup

"Q-Unit is a delightful mashup album combining 50-Cent and Queen -- with tracks like "This is How We Bite the Dust," 'Bohemian Wanksta' and 'We Will Rock You in Da Club.'"

http://members.home.nl/visionx/

The Rev Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping

Just a little something to put you in the holiday spirit...



The Stop Shopping Monitor � From The Rev: "The Christmas Sermon

Children — What is 'Giving' at 'Christmas?' What is it doing to us? This is the season where the supermodels march on us in earnest. The celebrities do their soft-shoe right off the label, they seem to push past the screen and plant a kiss on our bundled faces like bad weather made of pouring-down sex videos. There is a feeling in the air that the right wing apocalypse scheduled by Tony Blair and George Bush will not interrupt the monument of Christmas. First things first. That global warming, that Lake of Fire – it will happen as god wills it. But first we must pummel one another with plastic conveniences, schmazzle dazzle… oh my GOD. Christmas! What can you do? Try to gain copyright control on your own mind? My wayward flock, stay calm.



Corporate Christmas is the Total Falsehood that holds within it a great opportunity. Brave the neurotic elves and smiling Wal Mart hostesses, look for a moment into that blinding darkness. Here is THE ECONOMY THAT WARS ON THE IDEA OF GIVING."

Llibrary/housing project - Rondo Community Outreach Library

wow. a facility like this would be such an asset to inner-city library systems, like the HPL. very creative and innovative



http://www.stpaul.lib.mn.us/rondo/

October 6, 2004

Innovative Library-Housing Project Breaks Ground



SAINT PAUL, MN - In mid-September, Saint Paul Public Library celebrated groundbreaking for the new Rondo Community Outreach Library / University and Dale Apartments. The project is one of the few combined library-housing projects in the nation. A 32,000 square-foot library will share a building with a 98-unit mixed income housing complex.



The library and developers believe this is one of a few such combined projects in the nation. To the library's knowledge, it is the second in the Midwest, after the Waconia Public Library which opened a combined library, housing and municipal offices complex this summer in Carver County.



At the groundbreaking, Saint Paul Public Library Director Gina La Force lauded the partnership between the Library system and private sector developer, Legacy Management, as a perfect fit. "We hope that people find themselves at home in the library. In this case the library building will actually be home for many people... a place for open homes and open minds."



Archie Givens Jr., President and CEO of Legacy Management told the groundbreaking crowd that the partnership was a natural one from his perspective.



"When we were first approached to talk about a library by the Mayor and his staff and Gina, it was no discussion required. I love libraries and know the power and importance of the word and importance of reading and literacy. It was really a dream opportunity for us at Legacy," Givens said.



Givens is also President of the Givens Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to enriching cultural understanding through programs that advance and celebrate African American literature and writers.



Mark Campbell, a director of Multifamily Housing for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development called the project a national model.



"These days it is almost impossible to construct affordable housing according to the old model, so we all had to adapt and become more creative. This partnership will show others how it can be done - a model to create affordable housing and to create educational opportunities for our citizens."



When it opens in the fall of 2005, Rondo Community Outreach Library will replace the aging and often-crowded Lexington Outreach Branch.



The new library will be named after the Rondo Community, an historically multicultural neighborhood which was decimated by the construction of an interstate highway through its heart. The neighborhood continues to be one of the most diverse areas of Saint Paul, with large African American, African and Hmong populations.



University Avenue and Dale Street, the intersection on which the library will be constructed, once had local notoriety as the base of several adult-oriented businesses which many viewed as a blight on the neighborhood. Both grassroots community members and the Mayor of Saint Paul hailed the library and housing development as a cornerstone for a bright new era at University and Dale.



"This is a project which will stand the test of time," Mayor Randy Kelly said. "We will be bringing our children and grandchildren by here and saying we had a small part in making this a reality."



Quoting from the bible, community activist and Model Cities CEO Beverly Hawkins said, "If the vision tarries, wait for it, for it will surely come. Before this thing is finally done, this whole intersection is going to make you proud."

Heavy Metal Parking Lot DVD

Looking for a Christmas gift for the metalhead who has everything? Buy it now!



"Videotaped in a concert arena parking lot before a Judas Priest show in '86, HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT is truly the most magnificent portrait of dirt-rockin', headbanging, booze guzzling, dope smokin', trailer trash America has ever seen. It's truly an ingenious masterpiece, made complete with the vast display of bare feet, muscle shirts, bare-chested guys, bleach blonde frizzy perms, Mullets From Hell, BIG hair, bad teeth, scar tissue, and by far, the largest collection of late '70s Camaros ever seen in one location. Kudos to both John Heyn and Jeff Krulik for putting together this quintessential '80s magnum opus."

MediaTransparency.org

About this website



Provides a searchable database of grants of money given to media groups by conservative organizations. This database picks up where previous inquiries had left off, and actually connects the money to the media.



"The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), which has kindly allowed [the site] to re-use some of their data, reported in 1997 on the grant making activities of 12 foundations over the period 1992 through 1994. That report, titled 'Moving A Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations,' laid out a fine groundwork for understanding this movement, yet fell short in providing a comprehensive, interactive, open-to-all database that maps out the actual grants, for all to see. People for The American Way accurately described the engine of this movement in the title of another report on the phenomenon called "Buying a Movement."

jake -- jointly administered knowledge environments

jake -- about

"jake is a reference source which makes finding, managing, and linking online journals and journal articles easier for students, researchers, and librarians. jake does this by managing metadata about online resources with a database union list, title authority control, and linking tools, as well as making it easy to customize for a specific library's holdings.

Put simply: jake makes it easy to create software which uses information about journals and online journal products.

The project started in April 1999 (see freshmeat version history) at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale University. From the beginning, jake has been a free software project developed using open source methods. This means that in addition to using a free software license (the GPL), we've opened up the process of managing the data in jake to our whole community. Our goal is to distribute the difficult task of keeping this data up to date very broadly, enabling all interested in helping to help make the data better and more complete. "

Opensecrets.org--Money in politics data

"The Web Site of the Center for Responsible Politics" - invaluable information about campaign finance and money in politics

100 Notable Books of the Year - New York Times

100 Notable Books of the Year - New York Times: "100 Notable Books of the Year"

The Baby Name Wizard: NameVoyager

"NameVoyager



Explore the sea of names, letter by letter...watch trends rise and fall, and dive in deeper to see your favorite name's place in the historical tides.



The Baby Name Wizard's NameVoyager is an interactive portrait of America's name choices. Start with a "sea" of nearly 5000 names. Type a letter, and you'll zoom in to focus on how that initial has been used over the past century. Then type a few more letters, or a name. Each stripe is a timeline of one name, its width reflecting the name's changing popularity. If a name intrigues you, click on its stripe for a closer look."

Monkeywrench Books - A Collective Radical Bookstore

http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

"MonkeyWrench Books is an all-volunteer, nonprofit, collectively owned and operated radical bookstore in North Austin. We provide an extensive collection of radical and hard to find literature and media, and a space for community events.In order to offer a real alternative to the homogeneity of corporate bookstores, MWB stocks books, periodicals, pamphlets and zines from alternative publishers such as AK Press, Autonomedia, Black Rose Books, Common Courage, Seven Stories, International Publishers, Kerr, Monthly Review, South End Press,and Verso."

Golden Age Cartoons - About Us

Golden Age Cartoons - About Us: "Golden Age Cartoons (or 'GAC') is a website devoted to the classic cartoons and characters from the Golden Age of Hollywood. On GAC you will find some of most informative sites about many of these great cartoons, along with an excellent discussion forum and news updates."

WhatTheFont : MyFonts

WhatTheFont : MyFonts

"Web service WhatTheFont analyzes uploaded images and returns the font style matching the font used in the image."

PubSub Community Lists: The Librarian List

PubSub Community Lists: The Librarian List: "About the List

Librarians have been part of the online environment for decades. It didn't take long for them to get excited about blogs. This list shows the most influential librarian blogs, based on LinkRank."

Wired News: Riya Eases Pain of Pile of Pix

Wired News: Riya Eases Pain of Pile of Pix:



It blows my mind, but apparently this software allows you to identify each face or figure within a picture and tag the photo using that info. Wow!

http://riya.com/corp/learn-more.jsp

Package Alert Service

"Have you ever ordered something cool online and just couldn't wait to get it? Do you agonize over when it will be in your clammy little hands and obsessively check delivery tracking websites?



Of course I certainly wouldn't do such a thing, but just in case someone else has this "problem" I created an email alerting system for package deliveries. A number of people are offering RSS feeds for tracking packages, but that's still the wrong model. Don't make me check when my package arrives, push it to me.">Package Alert Service: "Have you ever ordered something cool online and just couldn't wait to get it? Do you agonize over when it will be in your clammy little hands and obsessively check delivery tracking websites?



Of course I certainly wouldn't do such a thing, but just in case someone else has this 'problem' I created an email alerting system for package deliveries. A number of people are offering RSS feeds for tracking packages, but that's still the wrong model. Don't make me check when my package arrives, push it to me."

EFF:Support Bloggers' Rights!

Support Bloggers' Rights!

The nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation defends your digital rights every day and needs your help to continue.

In a recent email, father of "life hacks" and EFF employee Danny O'Brien wrote:
"My day job at the Electronic Frontier Foundation involves helping them fight the broadcast flag and discover sinister laser printer dots and defend bloggers' rights and wave the pointy stick at Sony over exploit-ridden DRM."

Publisher of the Legal Guide for Bloggers, the EFF works to protect your right to blog anonymously, make fair use of intellectual property, and protect your server from government seizure.

Google Base service goes live | CNET News.com

Google Base service goes live | CNET News.com: "Google's mysterious Google Base service went live late on Tuesday, allowing people to post any kind of information they want for free and to provide labels to describe it so others can easily find it."

Y.P.R.: The Most Excellent () and Lamentable () Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Told Entirely in Emoticons

Y.P.R.: The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Told Entirely in Emoticons: What would Shakespeare think?

Librarians Against Bush

Librarians Against Bush: "'Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. Whenever things

get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.' Thomas Jefferson"

Real-Time Flight Tracking

Real-Time Flight Tracking: Real-Time Flight Tracking
"Want to check on the status of a flight that's currently in the air? The major search engines and other specialized services offer real-time flight tracking services that show you the status of major airline flights."

This could be very useful during the holidays, with all that family travelling about...

dodgeit.com

:

"How does it work?

Pick a throwaway address, say: deeznuts@dodgeit.com Give that address out whenever you need to. Check deeznuts from homepage of dodgeit.com. Subscribe to RSS feed to keep an eye on the mailbox. Get it?"

Yahoo! Site Explorer - Learn more

The Yahoo! search database contains detailed information about the structure of the web. In addition to the web pages themselves, the database stores information about links among pages, and uses that information (as well as additional algorithms) to gauge the popularity of a given page.



Site Explorer gives you access to this information so you can learn about a site. To explore a site, you submit a URL using a search box, just as you would for a normal web search. You can then click links on the results page to see detailed information.

http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/siteexplorer/learnmore

About radical reference | Radical Reference

“…librarians are more freedom fighters than shushers.”



--Carla Hayden, Ms. Magazine online



Mission Statement: Radical Reference is a collective of volunteer library workers who believe in social justice and equality. We support activist communities, progressive organizations, and independent journalists by providing professional research support, education and access to information. We work in a collaborative virtual setting and are dedicated to information activism to foster a more egalitarian society.



Radical reference originated as a service provided by volunteer library workers from all over the United States to assist demonstrators and activists at the convergence surrounding the Republican National Convention in New York City August 29-September 2, 2004. We are evolving, expanding our services, and continuing to utilize our professional skills and tools to answer information needs from the general public, independent journalists, and activists. Service will be provided via this web site, blog, e-mail, chat, phone, in the street and Ouija board.

YouSendIt | Email large files quickly, securely, and easily!

YouSendIt | Email large files quickly, securely, and easily!



"Enter your recipient's email address, choose a file to store on YouSendIt server, click on Send It button to send a link. Your privacy is guaranteed."

elgooG - Google Mirror Mirror

elgooG



If you ever need a quick headache, this is the place to go. Seems to be exactly like Google, only in mirror-image. Neat.

Crash Bonsai

Tiny, delicate, violent. Love it.



About Crash Bonsai: "CrashBonsai is the creation of John Rooney, an artist who is torn between the desire to create and destroy. Recently, he has been making bonsai plants, and combining them with model cars and trucks which he has creatively smashed and melted, to create 'CrashBonsai,' little living car crash sculptures."

litefeeds :: mobile RSS

Wow. You don't even have to have a Treo or Blackberry, you can use this on any web-ready phone. very cool!

litefeeds :: mobile RSS: "Litefeeds mobile is an application that you can install over the air to your mobile device (or download and install). Once installed simply enter your litefeeds username and password and your mobile device will synchronize with your online account, receiving all of your chosen feeds."

Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

Okay, I usually only blog free sites, but this was too neat not to pass along. The examples given are clear and intuitive, and a resource like this might make it fun to use the thesaurus!

"The Visual Thesaurus is a dictionary and thesaurus with an intuitive interface that encourages exploration and learning. Available in both a Desktop Edition and an Online Edition, the Visual Thesaurus is a marvelous way to improve your vocabulary and your understanding of the English language."

Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

Yahoo! Subscription Search

Yahoo! Search

Yahoo began testing a service late Wednesday that allows people to perform simultaneous searches for information contained within subscription-based Web sites.



While most search engines crawl the Web and troll freely accessible sites, they cannot get into much of the so-called deep Web, vast amounts of data stored within paid and password-protected sites. Yahoo Search Subscriptions will allow search access to seven different subscription Web sites simultaneously, including the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal Online.



The other subscription sites Yahoo users will be able to get access to are ConsumerReports.org, TheStreet.com, The New England Journal of Medicine, Forrester Research, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. LexisNexis, Factiva and the Association of Computing Machinery subscription Web sites are expected to be added in coming weeks.

Freecycle: Spring, TX

This is my town's, but there are many listed for the entire U.S.



"The Freecycle Network is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots movement of people who are giving and getting stuff for free in their own towns. Each local group is run by a local volunteer moderator. Membership is free. For more information visit Freecycle.org.



One rule: everything posted must be FREE. Whether it's a chair, a fax machine, piano, or an old door to be given away, it can be posted on the network. Or, maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself? Respond to the posting directly and you just might get it. After that it is up to the giver to set up a pickup time for passing on the treasure."

Yahoo! Groups : Spring_TX_Freecycle

The Advertising Slogan Generator

very clever.

The Advertising Slogan Generator

Pac Manhattan

Pac-Manhattan is a large-scale urban game that utilizes the New York City grid to recreate the 1980's video game sensation Pac-Man. This analog version of Pac-man is being developed in NYU's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program, in order to explore what happens when games are removed from their "little world" of tabletops, televisions and computers and placed in the larger "real world" of street corners, and cities.



It's not new-news, but too good not to post!

Pac Manhattan

PeanutButterWiki

Another techno-toy that's SO cool, but I have no idea how I'll use it. This little site allows you to create your own wiki, in literal seconds, using TipiWiki technologies. I made one for my work, but don't yet know what to do with it. Several drawbacks are apparent, but may yet be fixed. You can't change your password from the assigned one; you must know some html to make your wording look good; your wiki is invitation-only; and worst of all, you have to have content. Check it out - get WikiSticky!
PeanutButterWiki

This day in Music ::

Excellent! The top song in the UK on my birthday was Tainted Love by The Soft Cell.

This day in Music ::

My Google

Google launches its personalized portal, including all your favourite Google features - links to your gmail account, weather, news, and oh yeah - a search box.

Google

buzztracker - 2005-05-19

pinched this from lessig's blog, who says:

"Here's a cool remix of the news, in a new service called Buzztracker. Using Google, the site gives a visual representation of news on the net."



Dig.



buzztracker - 2005-05-19

College Libraries Set Aside Books in a Digital Age - New York Times

yay for UT!

College Libraries Set Aside Books in a Digital Age - New York Times

The Hollywood Librarian

The Hollywood Librarian

back in black

Dear Constant Reader, Thank you for your patience, during my absence. I have moved shop, back to Houston and home to my fiance. Looking forward to more fun reference!

Yours truly,
Emily

YaGoohoo!gle

Offers both Google and Yahoo search results in a split page. Great for directory searching.

YaGoohoo!gle

The Annotated New York Times

A great site dedicated to the annotations and citations made to each day's NYTimes articles.

The Annotated New York Times

Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Lists

Highly recommended leisure reading, but not for the squeamish. Sincerely comical stuff.

Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Lists

Looking for Independent Coffee? Try delocator.net

For those of us who feel very strongly about independent business, especially our coffee, this is a great way to find a nearby shop.

delocator.net

Google April Fool's Search

Well, I was a few days late, but this is really pretty good!

Google April Fool's Search

WikiWax Index to Wikipedia -- using LookAhead from SurfWax

Over 800,000 Wikipedia terms with 2,200,000 rotations.

When you find information, save, share or publish it with Nextaris™



WikiWax uses LookAhead™ the original dynamic query refinement tool.

LookAhead launched January, 2004, about 11 months before Google Suggest.



WikiWax Index to Wikipedia -- using LookAhead from SurfWax

BlawgCast.com

Announcing BlawgCast.com: One-Stop Browsing for Law-Related Podcasts

BlawgCast.com

Yahoo! Search Creative Commons

This Yahoo! search is designed to search specifically creative commons-licensed materials. Yay for Yahoo!



Yahoo! Search - Web Search

Newseum - The Interactive Museum of News

Newseum - The Interactive Museum of News

"The world's first interactive museum of news — the Newseum — opened in Arlington, Va., in 1997. Its mission was simple: to help the public and the news media understand one another better."

Museum of Online Musuems

Coudal Partners: "Welcome to the coudal.com Museum of Online Museums. Here, you will find links from our archives to online collections and exhibits covering a vast array of interests and obsessions: Start with a review of classic art and architecture, and graduate to the study of mundane (and sometimes bizarre) objects elevated to art by their numbers, juxtaposition, or passion of the collector."

Brainboost Answer Engine

New search engine:

"Brainboost is an answer engine whereas Google is a Search engine.



What that means is that Brainboost actually finds answers to your questions posed in plain English as opposed to directing you to pages that simply mention the questions.



Brainboost, Using the AnswerRank™ system, intelligently reads hundreds of web pages derived from search results and extracts just the short and concise answer to your question, saving you time."



Brainboost Answer Engine

43 Things

(sponsored by amazon.com)

Discover what's important, make it happen, share your progress. Find your 43 things. Learn more…



Write down your goals

People have known for years that making a list of goals is the best way to achieve them. Why is that? First, getting your goals in writing can help you clarify what you really want to do. You might find you have some important and some frivolous goals. That is OK. You’ve got space for 43 Things on your list. Not every one of them has to change the world (but save room for the ones that might).



Get Inspired

What do you want to do with your life? It is not an easy question to answer – and you shouldn’t have to answer alone. Browse 43 Things to find out what others want to do. You might find some goals you share. Click the “I want to do this” button to add a goal to your list. Got an idea for a new goal? Just type it in the text box on the homepage or at the bottom of any page on the site. Bam. Now, it’s your thing.



Share your progress

We all have stories about what we care about. Writing down your progress on a goal can help someone else learn about something you both want to do. When you see a goal you’ve achieved, click on the “I’ve done this” button and share a story about how you did it.

43 Things

Ourmedia Homepage | Ourmedia

"We provide free storage and free bandwidth for your videos, audio files, photos, text or software. Forever. No catches.



Get recognized for your creativity. Make your voice heard. Register now and join the personal media revolution."



Ourmedia Homepage | Ourmedia

C-SPAN: DIGITAL FUTURE

An excellent show coming up on this site

C-SPAN: DIGITAL FUTURE



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

The Digital Future

Final show - Neil Gershenfeld, Dir. of the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT, discusses his new concept, Internet 0 (Zero), in which a new infrastructure for the Internet would give an IP address to all electronic devices & interconnect them directly.

Libraries, for those who love books
Originally uploaded by see emily play.

I Love Libraries & I Vote Order Form || Wisconsin Library Association

Buy a sticker! Buy twelve stickers!

I Love Libraries & I Vote Order Form || Wisconsin Library Association

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: X-celling Over Men

Research published last week in the journal Nature reveals that women are genetically more complex than scientists ever imagined, while men remain the simple creatures they appear.



The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: X-celling Over Men

Lucy on female scientists and x-cellence

lucy scientists
Originally uploaded by see emily play.

MercuryNews.com | 03/16/2005 | Professor's online publishing experiment

Further nudging outward the boundaries of online publishing, Stanford University Professor Larry Lessig will put his 1999 book ``Code'' online today and invite Internet users to help him write an updated version.



A noted copyright expert and proponent of free software, Lessig is putting the 297-page treatise about technology, culture and regulation on the Web in the form of a ``wiki,'' a site that can allow people to freely edit its contents. The law professor will take the contributions at http://codebook.jot .com and edit them into a printed version of the book.

MercuryNews.com | 03/16/2005 | Professor's online publishing experiment

Book Aid International - Reverse Book Club

Book Aid International - Book Club:



"You know how with normal book clubs, you pay a monthly fee, and get offers for lots of books that you don't really want? Well, our Reverse Book Club is a little bit different! You pay 5 pounds a month, and we send you... nothing at all!"



"It costs us 5 pounds to send 4 carefully selected books to readers of all ages in Africa and beyond.



People in developing world countries need REGULAR, reliable help to break out of the cycle of poverty. A donation of just 5 pounds a month would mean we could provide 48 books a year to readers in countries such as Ethiopia, Nepal and Sierra Leone."

BugMeNot.com

The Internet offers a booming trade to help with this type of annoyance-fighting behavior. For example, shared passwords to free Web sites are available at www.bugmenot.com to help people avoid dealing with long registration forms.

BugMeNot.com

Judge Says Calif. Can't Ban Gay Marriage

A judge ruled Monday that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional - a legal milestone that, if upheld on appeal, would open the way for the most populous state to follow Massachusetts in allowing same-sex couples to wed.

DailyProgress.com | AP News

Screw SETI !!!

The Google Compute Project:

Put your computer to work advancing scientific knowledge when it's not helping you.

Google Compute is a feature of the Google Toolbar that enables your computer to help solve challenging scientific problems when it would otherwise be idle. When you enable Google Compute, your computer will download a small piece of a large research project and perform calculations on it that will then be included with the calculations performed by thousands of other computers doing the same thing. This process is known as distributed computing.

The first beneficiary of this effort is Folding@home, a non-profit academic research project at Stanford University that is trying to understand the structure of proteins so they can develop better treatments for a number of illnesses. In the future Google Compute may allow you to also donate your computing time to other carefully selected worthwhile endeavors, including projects to improve Google and its services.

The Google Compute feature

Folding@Home Distributed Computing

You can help via Google deskbar too!



Folding@Home is a distributed computing project which studies protein folding, misfolding, aggregation, and related diseases. We use novel computational methods and large scale distributed computing, to simulate timescales thousands to millions of times longer than previously achieved. This has allowed us to simulate folding for the first time, and to now direct our approach to examine folding related disease.



How can you help? You can help our project by downloading and running our client software. Our algorithms are designed such that for every computer that joins the project, we get a commensurate increase in simulation speed. One can also help by donating funds to the project, via Stanford University.



Folding@Home Distributed Computing

Google Keyboard Shortcuts

For us notebook users...

Google Keyboard Shortcuts

Fun Library Cartoon - Overdue Books

overdue_clip1.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

AARP Social Security Blog

what better place to explore the issues as the Greatest Generation sees them?

AARP Social Security Blog

BlogStreet : Blog Profiles, RSS Ecosystem, Blog Tops, Search and Directory

From Search Engine Watch: "While these blog search engines all have useful features, they tend to focus on features like keyword search, popularity and other measures that determine the importance or prominence of a blog. They work well for finding individual blog postings on a particular topic, but have a harder time pinpointing a particular author that writes regularly on topics of interest to you. By contrast, Blogstreet's discovery tools take a different approach, tapping into the linkage patterns in the blogosphere to help you locate blogs that are similar to ones you currently read."



BlogStreet : Blog Profiles, RSS Ecosystem, Blog Tops, Search and Directory

Sunshine Week - Freedom of Government Information

This Sunday, March 13, 2005, American news organizations will participate in “Sunshine Sunday” by running stories and editorials in support of public access to government information. "Sunshine Sunday" kicks off Sunshine Week, a project designed to focus attention on the public's right of access to government information.“This is not just an issue for the press. It’s an issue for the public,” said Andy Alexander, ASNE Freedom of Information chair, who is chief of the Cox Newspapers’ Washington bureau. “An alarming amount of public information is being kept secret from citizens and the problem is increasing by the month. Not only do citizens have a right to know, they have a need to know." “Our goal is the raise public awareness of this horrible trend that is hurting democracy,” he said of the Sunshine Week project. “We hope that it sparks a public dialogue about the value of open government and the damage to citizens from excessive government secrecy."FreeCulture.org has organized "Blogshine Sunday" for March 13.Blogshine Sunday, at http://blogshine.org, is about preserving the right of all citizens, not just credentialed journalists, to observe the workings of their government.

SUNSHINE Week - Sunshine Week Showcase

BOOKS2EAT the International Edible Book Festival

BOOKS2EAT the International Edible Book Festival



Celebrated this year by the Rare Books Room of the Willis Library of University of North Texas, for those in the area. Come on by and get a "taste"

A9.com

A9.com is a powerful search engine, using web search and image search results enhanced by Google, Search Inside the Book® results from Amazon.com, reference results from GuruNet, movies results from IMDb, and more.



A9.com remembers your information so you don’t have to. You can keep your own notes about any web page and search them; it is a new way to store and organize your bookmarks; it even recommends new sites and favorite old sites specifically for you to visit. With the A9 Toolbar installed your web browsing history will be saved so you can search through your whole history (and clear items you don’t want kept). A9.com uses your history to recommend new sites, to alert you to new search results, and to let you know the last time you visited a page.

check the top right corner, see if it knows your name! kinda spooky if it does. here's why:

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, A9.com uses your Amazon.com account to identify you and shares information with Amazon.com to improve the services we offer. If you don't want to be identified, you can sign out. See the A9.com privacy notice for details.





A9.com Home Page

DVD facing an early grave?

The DVD format will be nothing more than a flash in the pan, according to the chief executive of Alcatel.



Speaking at the opening of the Alcatel Forum in Paris, Serge Tchuruk told delegates that cheap and widely available broadband services will sound the death knell for the popular storage medium.



This could have serious implications for libraries, in several significant ways. One of these ways being the provision of internet access, and also the potential for "streaming" material to users in their homes, or in the library. Libraries must continue to consider the technologication adaptations required to provide patrons materials in a time and cost efficient ways. These may include: ipods, personal dvd-players, laptops and pda's for check-out, in-library use. RFID may provide more security for these equipment items, but that is another issue...

DVD facing an early grave: "The DVD format will be nothing more than a flash in the pan, according to the chief executive of Alcatel.

The Philipps / Wurlitzer music roll database project

The Music Roll Database Project is an attempt to catalogue original, factory-cut music rolls for certain automatic musical instruments. Recut music rolls are not included, although title information from recut rolls may be used as a source of catalogued tune and composer information, and will be so noted as may be appropriate.



Site shows neat pictures of original materials and thorough descriptions of the manufacture and use of these "old-timey" jukeboxes.



SO glad to know someone is doing this!



The Philipps / Wurlitzer music roll database project: "Music Roll Database Research Project"

Podcast Public Radio

PublicRadioFeeds.com

BBC NEWS | Americas | American media vs the blogs

Questions this quote:

"The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail."

Steve Lovelady, managing editor, Columbia Journalism Review



I beg to differ...



BBC NEWS | Americas | American media vs the blogs: "The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail. "

SF Gate: News: Bondage File

San Francisco Chronicle's Weird News



SF Gate: News: Bondage File

Dave Eggers sez...

this is a great newspaper book review section.

see the article on the late Hunter S. Thompson



SF Gate: Entertainment: Books

The Believer

The Believer is an amiable yet rigorous forum for writing about books. It seeks to extend the ever-shortening shelf life of new books (and revives interest in books long overlooked), and stresses the interconnectivity of books to pop culture, politics, art, and music. To that end, the focus of the magazine includes essays on these topics, as well as lengthy interviews with philosophers, upholsterers, geneticists, and other great minds.

Written for, and published by Dave Eggers



The Believer

Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

Great site, nicely done.



[ The Devil's Dictionary Dot Com ]

RedTacton

RedTacton is a new Human Area Networking technology that uses the surface of the human body as a safe, high speed network transmission path. RedTacton uses the minute electric fieldemitted on the surface of the human body. Technically, it is completely distinct from wireless and infrared. A transmission path is formed at the moment a part of the human body comes in contact with a RedTacton transceiver. Physically separating ends the contact and thus ends communication. Using RedTacton, communication starts when terminals carried by the user or embedded in devices are linked in various combinations according to the user's natural, physical movements. Communication is possible using any body surfaces, such as the hands, fingers, arms, feet, face, legs or torso. RedTacton works through shoes and clothing as well.



whoa...



RedTacton

Internet Archive of Media

Internet Archive

CIA FOIA - FOIA Annual Report to Congress

available in word, PDF, or plain text, and searchable. includes archives back to 1997



CIA FOIA - FOIA Annual Report to Congress

Most Challenged Books in 2004

ALA |

Everything you wanted to know about Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs)

my father always brought these on family vacations and threatened to make us eat them...



Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs)

KFTF: Keeping Found Things Found Project Website

A research project of the Information School at the University of Washington. You can volunteer to help this project, how do you relocate what you think you need to find later, once found?



KFTF: Keeping Found Things Found Project Website

Patent 5971829: Motorized ice cream cone

a browsable list of patents granted, numbering from 4000000 on...



Patent 5971829: Motorized ice cream cone

WhiteHouseTapes.org :: The secret White House tapes and recordings of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower

WhiteHouseTapes.org :: The secret White House tapes and recordings of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower

Free searchable text of 9-11 Commission Report, 2005 State of the Union, etc.

Free-Form Database and Information Management Solutions - askSam

Asksam.com - Free Downloads of legislation

Includes, 9-11 Commission Report, Sarbanes-Oxley, and 2005 State of the Union address.



Free-Form Database and Information Management Solutions - askSam

Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 - Searchable Version

Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 - Searchable Version

BBC | National Gallery goes interactive

very cool! do check out the graphics, it's great!


href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4228569.stm">BBC NEWS | Technology | National Gallery goes interactive

Interactive Textiles and Wearable Computers

Not likely to be the spring fashion trend, but something interesting to follow...

Hexagram: "Interactive Textiles and Wearable Computers"

Imagining the Internet - Predictions Database

read and contribute. imagine ray bradbury, isaac asimov, and steve jobs doing madlibs.

Imagining the Internet - Predictions Database

kiss a goat, grow up to be a nice human

a shout out to our furry friends. send your kids to school with donkeys, to teach them not to be asses.

WELCOME TO TEACHKIND.ORG

I'm going RSS!

yay! please click the link that says "syndicate this site" and then copy and paste that redirected url into your rss reader, or email me at e.cunningham@flash.net to be added to the daily email digest. thanks!

Googling Better: Mary Ellen Bates - Tip of the Month

Mary Ellen Bates - Tip of the Month

Book critics tap prize nominees

Boston.com / A&E / Books / Book critics tap prize nominees

strandbeest

This is true! See the link to "video"



"Since about ten years Theo Jansen is occupied with the making of a new nature. Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic matierial of this new nature. He makes skeletons which are able to walk on the wind. Eventualy he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives."



strandbeest: "Since about ten years Theo Jansen is occupied with the making of a new nature. Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic matierial of this new nature. He makes skeletons which are able to walk on the wind. Eventualy he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives."

Wired News: Information Wants to be Liquid

Check out Liquid Information.

Wired News: Information Wants to be Liquid



http://www.liquidinformation.org/

Free Academic Papers - CiteSeer Scientific Literature Digital Library

includes a wealth of library and information sciences information found freely available on the web. yay for open source and sharing!



Computer and Information Science Papers CiteSeer Publications ResearchIndex

Google to Branch Into Television

quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Google to Branch Into Television

The Cybernetic Broadcasting System

A radio station completed manned and archived by robots!

The Cybernetic Broadcasting System

Vannevar Bush and Memex

revolutionary!



Memex

BookCrossing - Home - FREE YOUR BOOKS!

A great resource for the browsing reader. just read your books, register them, and then release it! anyone interested can go retrieve it, to enjoy themselves!

BookCrossing - Home - FREE YOUR BOOKS!

Pew Internet & American Life Project

reports from the Pew instute, available to be read for free! yay!



Pew Internet & American Life Project

Delphion Gallery of Obscure Patents

get a good laugh at these insensible devices!

Delphion Gallery of Obscure Patents

IP Blogs: Poket Parts for a Digital Age

neat article on how lawyers are using blogs to stay current, especially in the area of IP.

Law Office of Robert J. Ambrogi

Folksonomy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

i'm still trying to understand this article. maybe once i've completed cataloging...



Folksonomy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wired News: Mexico Begins Sound Wave Project

mexico unveils plan to use underwater seismic pulses to learn more about the Chicxulub Crater, suspected to have been caused an asteroid from 65 million years ago.

Wired News: Mexico Begins Sound Wave Project

Smartmoney.com: 10 Things: Archives

An interesting compendium of "Ten-things" lists, mostly ten things you wont know about a topic. Compiled by SmartMoney.com

Smartmoney.com: 10 Things: Archives

American Sign Museum

A cool look at the history of the American sign and it's impact on the American landscape. Brought to you by the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio.

American Sign Museum

eBay item 5551382123 - Purpose in life - Do you need it? Get a Purpose in Life

eBay item 5551382123 (Ends Jan-23-05 16:16:24 PST) - Purpose in life - Do you need it? Get a Purpose in Life

eBay item 5551382123 (Ends Jan-23-05 16:16:24 PST) - Purpose in life - Do you need it? Get a Purpose in Life

eBay item 5551382123 - Purpose in life - Do you need it?



Inquirer Article - Reason for Living for Sale on Ebay

ALA | Anonymous Donor Grants $1 Million to Five Public Libraries

yay for giving money to libraries!!! remember to do what you can for your local library. one fun way to give back is to watch for the library's book sale. it's a great chance to pick up good and cheap library-quality books, that also raises money for literacy programs and new materials

ALA | Anonymous Donor Grants $1 Million to Five Public Libraries

Wired News: Photo Sites Review

Wired News: Photo Sites Share and Share Alike

The Paris Review - Searchable Full-Text Author Interviews

The Paris Review - Interviews

Woo! Three Free Editions of "Library Hi Tech"

Emerald Fulltext:

InfoWorld: BizSpeak for the geek

"With tongue firmly in cheek, here's a handy glossary/survival guide for those dreaded meetings with the CFO...For better or worse, no one says mindshare anymore. Today they say wallet share, although the meanings of the terms would seem to differ. Therefore, we offer this abridged lexicon of trendy business terms -- and some that won’t go away -- to help you keep your poker face in any boardroom."

InfoWorld: BizSpeak for the geek: January 07, 2005: By Richard Gincel : BUSINESS

The New York Times > Measuring Literacy in a World Gone Digital

i'm still reading this, but it's an interesting article on info-literacy.

The New York Times > Technology > Measuring Literacy in a World Gone Digital

University of California eScholarship Repository

Free!

"17213 full-text downloads of repository content in the last week. 943394 full-text downloads to date."



"The repository is a service of the eScholarship initiative of the California Digital Library. Research and scholarly output included here has been selected and deposited by the individual University of California units."

eScholarship Repository

OAIster - Digital Resources

"OAIster is a project of the University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service. Our goal is to create a collection of freely available, previously difficult-to-access, academically-oriented digital resources (what are digital resources?) that are easily searchable by anyone."

OAIster Home

Welcome to Bathroom Mania!

Clever bathroom designs. Not topical, but funny!



Welcome to Bathroom Mania!

Folksonomies - Cooperative Classification and Communication Through Shared Metadata

a scholarly site on classification schemes and metadata

Folksonomies - Cooperative Classification and Communication Through Shared Metadata

Wikiversity:School of Library and Information Science - Wikibooks

it's not exactly accredited, but if you'd like a crash course in info science, try out the wikiversity school!

Wikiversity:School of Library and Information Science - Wikibooks

AllLookSame?

a revealing portrait of cultural bias. take the quiz on recognizing asian faces, and uncover your ethnocentricity!



http://www.alllooksame.com/

Wikibrary - Wikibooks

wiki is still changing the way we learn!



"Wikibooks is dedicated to developing and disseminating free, open content textbooks and other classroom texts. We currently host 6198 textbook modules, in various stages of development, from those needing a lot of work to those that are nearly perfect. Every book is open to revision and addition by anyone—including you."



http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page

HIstory of Information Management

Here's a great article by Michael Buckland, a professor at the School of Information Management and Systems, formerly the School of Library and Information Studies. It's mostly a set of links, strung together in order of historical event, but as always, Berkeley is ahead of the curve.



http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~buckland/history.html

einstein's legacy

"A century after Einstein's miracle year, most people still do not understand exactly what it was he did. Here, we attempt to elucidate..."

http://www.economist.com/printedition/PrinterFriendly.cfm?

Story_ID=3518580

Trans Texas MegaHighway

http://www.governor.state.tx.us/divisions/press/pressreleases/

PressRelease.2004-12-16.5115



"The state of Texas is seeking to build a 4,000-mile megahighway network between Oklahoma and Mexico, called the Trans-Texas Corridor. The highway will be up to a quarter-mile across, and include separate lanes for passenger vehicles, large trucks, freight railways, high-speed commuter railways, and infrastructure for utilities including water lines, oil and gas pipelines, electricity, and broadband. In a recent press release, the governor of Texas said it will 'forever change the way we build roads.' So much for scenic drives."

your sign here!

From BBC News:

Man auctions ad space on forehead

A 20-year-old US man is selling advertising space on his forehead to the highest bidder on website eBay.Andrew Fischer, from Omaha, Nebraska, said he would have a non-permanent logo or brand name tattooed on his head for 30 days."The way I see it I'm selling something I already own; after 30 days I get it back," he told the BBC Today programme.

Mr Fischer has received 39 bids so far, with the largest bid currently at more than $322 (£171). "The winner will be able to send me a tattoo or have me go to a tattoo parlour and get a temporary ink tattoo on my forehead and this will be something they choose, a company name or domain name, perhaps their logo," he told the Radio 4 programme.

I wouldn't go around with 666, the mark of the beast Andrew Fisher

On the online auction, Mr Fischer describes himself as an "average American Joe, give or take". His sales pitch adds: "Take advantage of this radical advertising campaign and become a part of history." Mr Fischer said that while he would accept any brand name or logo, "I wouldn't go around with a swastika or anything racial". He added: "I wouldn't go around with 666, the mark of the beast.

"Other than that I wouldn't promote anything socially unacceptable such as adult websites or stores." He said he would use the money to pay college fees - he is planning to study graphic design. The entrepreneur said his mother was initially surprised by his decision but following all the media attention she felt he was "thinking outside the box". Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/4161413.stm



Published: 2005/01/10 12:03:42 GMT



© BBC MMV

ew. jump start your new year's resolution with....

http://www.mypetfat.com/default.asp



mypetfatTM is an unforgettable, highly successful "visual" approach to weight loss that was created to inspire and motivate anyone who wants to...



- lose a little bit of weight

- lose a massive amount of weight

- maintain their weight

- eat more mindfully

- eat healthier

- achieve their fitness goals



Founded on 3 principles; consciousness, choice, and conditioning,



mypetfatTM supports all diet and exercise plans.

a new planet near to our solar system?!

"Astronomers are highly confident that they've taken the first photograph of a planet outside our solar system. Make that two photographs. A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms with a high degree of confidence a picture made previously by astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and reported by SPACE.com in September. The planet -- still just a candidate, actually -- is an odd duck in many respects. It does not orbit a normal star, and it is much more massive than the largest planets in our solar system. Still, if confirmed, it represents a landmark in astronomy along the road to the ultimate goal of finding and photographing Earth-like planets around other stars."

http://space.com/scienceastronomy/aas_exoplanet_050110.html

http://www.eso.org/

on the lighter side...

McSweeney's has wonderful, tongue-in-cheek lists found here. Not all rated PG, but mostly hilarious!

now here's a beautiful system

Artist Chris Cobb arranged this San Francisco bookstore, entirely by color. See the pictures!

Return the book and nobody gets hurt...

Book 'em: Libraries turn to collection agencies - They really just want overdue items back, not money

Posted: Jan. 13, 2005 by REID J. EPSTEIN repstein@journalsentinel.com

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wauk/jan05/292917.asp?format=print

Doodles, drafts, and designs: industrial drawings from the Smithsonian

This exhibition presents examples of industrial drawings in the collections of the National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Some are working drawings, ideas sketched in pencil or ink. Others are more finished, designed for presentation. A few are printed, either as sales material or as part of a patent application. They visually document American industrial creativity, from inventor's hand and investor's boardroom, to patent office, factory floor, and manufacturer's showroom.



http://www.sil.si.edu/exhibitions/doodles/

Library Technology Guides

The Library Technology Guides website aims to provide comprehensive and objective information related to the field of library automation. This site has no affiliation with any library automation company. Whether you are in the process of selecting a library automation system, or just want to keep up with developments in the field, Library Technology Guides is the place to start.



http://www.librarytechnology.org/

Military LIbrarians Division of the Special Libraries Association

MLD, a division of the Special Libraries Association, brings together members from all the U.S. military services, the Canadian Combined Armed Forces, other national military services, other DoD agencies, contractors and vendors, and anyone with an interest in military librarianship. Our goal is to promote the profession both within our organizations and to the world at large and also to assist our members to develop the core competencies required in this new age of knowledge management. We accomplish this through program sponsorship at the annual SLA meetings, sponsorship of our own annual Division meeting, the Military Librarians Workshop (MLW), networking, committee participation, and publication of our newsletter, The Military Librarian.



http://www.sla.org/division/dmil/AboutMLD.htm

New answers.com interface - gurunet.com

Search engines give you links to sift through, one by one.

GuruNet software and web solutions give you actual information,

without sending you hunting all over the web.

Creepy deep-sea creatures upended by the tsunami

"The following page features numerous great pictures

of bizarre and creepy deep-sea creatures which have

been dredged up by the recent tsunami and presented by

normal divers. Fascinating stuff! The page is in

Russian, but it's all about the pictures."



http://forum.openwater.ru/index.php?showtopic=611

Neuroeconomics

Neuroeconomics is an interdisciplinary research program with the goal of building a biological model of decision making in economic environments. Neuroeconomists ask, how does the embodied brain enable the mind (or groups of minds) to make economic decisions? By combining techniques from cognitive neuroscience and experimental economics we can now watch neural activity in real time, observe how this activity depends on the economic environment, and test hypotheses about how the emergent mind makes economic decisions. Neuroeconomics allows us to better understand both the wide range of heterogeneity in human behavior, and the role of institutions as ordered extensions of our minds.



http://neuroeconomics.typepad.com/neuroeconomics/2003/09/neuroeconomics_.html

Physics gets cool

Hardly E=mc2, but 100 years after Albert Einstein published three seminal research papers which changed scientific thinking about the universe forever, physicists are conscious they must rebrand their shunned science to appeal to young people.

Einstein Year was launched in Britain this month at a youth-driven ceremony at London's Science Museum where a BMX stunt rider performed an "Einstein flip," said to be the first bicycle stunt to be designed by a physicist.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&u=/nm/20050113/sc_nm/life_einstein_dc&printer=1

Looking for a good read?

Try OCLC's tool, fictionfinder

or refer to Nancy Pearl's "Book Lust" This is a link to amazon, but dont forget to check your local library!

Gabriel - Gateway to Europe's National Libraries

Gabriel is the World Wide Web service of Europe's National Libraries represented in the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL). In Gabriel you can find information about all the National Libraries of Europe, their services and the online exhibitions they offer. The objectives of Gabriel have been defined in the Gabriel Mission Statement.



http://www.bl.uk/gabriel/

OCLC Top 1000

OCLC Research has compiled a list of the top 1000 titles owned by member libraries—the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the "purchase vote" of libraries around the globe.

United Nations Documents Search

ODS covers all types of official United Nations documentation, beginning in 1993. Older UN documents are, however, added to the system on a daily basis. ODS also provides access to the resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards. The system does not contain press releases (posted at http://www.un.org/News/Press/full.htm), UN sales publications (contact: http://unp.un.org), the United Nations Treaty Series or information brochures issued by the Department of Public Information. Please click on Help for more detailed information.



http://documents.un.org/welcome.asp?language=E

RUSA Best of the Reference Web Sites 2005

This is a section of the American Libraries Association, the Reference and User Services Association's, hit-list of e-resources for reference libraries.

How Stuff Works - Tsunamis

I have long been a fan of this site, and their tsunami page is no exception to the usual high standards. See this page for video footage, maps, erosion details and other facts.



Also, follow any of the links below to take part in the rescue and restoration efforts.

Doctors without Borders

Unicef

Google list of relief agencies

Need a Miracle?

This is a search portal that permits you to look not for just content, but great designs, of websites. Great for a neophyte designer or for when you're just stumped with your site or tools.

Collact - share the web!

Finally, a website designed to streamline your link-sharing! How many emails do you send out containing only a link? This might help!

delicious library

This is a great tool for organizing a small or private libary. Neat interface and rave reviews, brand-new!

Technorati

This site is a member-oriented web portal with great lists and recommendations. New and improved, with tags. Check it out!

UNT Albino Squirrel Preservation Society

These cute cuddlies are native to the UNT campus in Denton, TX. Submit for the name-the-squirrel contest!

School Daze

well, i'm back from holiday and waist-deep in cataloguing/metadata bootcamp, already. WHEW!



I will be beginning a new reference position with the SMU Underwood Law Library this month and look forward to a new flavour of "reference desk randomness"!!! as i have been catching up with my rss feeds, i'm come across some good reference and library-related links, listed above with short reviews. Thanks for reading, and enjoy.