Politics: Illingworth Cartoons in the National Library

Over 4,500 cartoons from the 1930s to the 1960s by Welsh political cartoonist Leslie Gilbert Illingworth (1902-1979) on such topics as nuclear weapons, Welsh events, WWII, the space race, and everyday life. <http://www.llgc.org.uk/illingworth/>

Travel: ExperienceLA.com

Although the L.A. Convention & Visitors Bureau seems uncharacteristically shy about taking credit, the website guide to the Los Angeles region it has created is very useful, especially for its emphasis on public transporation (did you know, for instance, that with a Metro Day Pass you can travel around LA for only $3 a day?). <http://www.experiencela.com/>

Research: Answers.com

"Answers.com is a free, ad-supported, reference search service, created to provide you with instant answers on over a million topics. As opposed to standard search engines that serve up a list of links for you to follow, Answers.com displays quick, snapshot answers with concise, reliable information. Our editors take our content from over 100 authoritative encyclopedias, dictionaries, glossaries and atlases, carefully chosen for breadth and quality....The best definitions and explanations for over 1 million topics." -- from the website. <http://www.answers.com/>

Astronomy: Scientists Detect Huge Energy Burst

Cosmic Explosion Among the Brightest in Recorded History

A high resolution, wide field image of the area around SGR1806 20 as seen in radio wavelength.
Scientists have detected a flash of light from across the Galaxy so powerful that it bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's upper atmosphere. The flash was brighter than anything ever detected from beyond our Solar System and lasted over a tenth of a second. NASA and European satellites and many radio telescopes detected the flash and its aftermath on December 27, 2004." -- from the website. <http://www.nasa.gov/>

Media: What's an RSS aggregator?

RSS is a useful technology that makes it easier for you to order up the breakfast of news and information you crave and deliver it to your desktop w/o that side order of spam. An article by "Ask Dave" Taylor demystifies the subject: <http://www.askdavetaylor.com/>; also there is a clear and thorough tutorial at <http://www.christian-web-masters.com/>.

Travel: Airline Meals(with pictures of 11,000 of them)

Airline Meals (which also covers airport restaurants, lounge food and meals in movies) is "the world's first and leading site about nothing but airline food," without, as far as I could tell, a single joke about barf bags. One section carries airline catering news, another goes "behind the scenes of airline catering," in a third visitors can discuss the stuff. There are almost 11,000 images of airborne meals from 439 airlines, including the inimitable Flying Nosh from New York Air. In our current age of frill-free travel, it's fun to look back on advertisements featuring sirloins, silverware and linen tablecloths. <http://www.airlinemeals.net/index.html>

Music: discoverRadio - new music channel

Another good indie source: <http://www.globaldust.com/radio/index.php>

Design: Transportation Futuristics

"What is 'transportation futuristics'? Many of us are familiar with covers from Popular Science that depict commuters buzzing around in tiny aircraft and landing on rooftops, or fanciful drawings of vehicles that run on roads, float on water and also take to the air. The basic problem many of us face each day -- how to get from Point A to Point B in the least amount of time with the least amount of trouble -- has inspired many to dream of marvelous ways to solve that problem....In spite of failing at what they set out to achieve, many futuristics, especially those from transportation practitioners, have influenced the design of equipment, facilities or operations. This exhibit examines why these intriguing ideas failed and what lessons we can learn from those failures." - from the website. <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/>

Re/Search: Public records on line

Pretrieve is a search engine for finding public records by searching a person or business name, address or phone number. With a name and a location, you can uncover Property, Criminal, Court, Financial, Professional, Local and Miscellaneous data, including aerial views of your subject's domicile or business. <http://www.pretrieve.com/>

Resource: 11,000 free hi-res, historical maps

"The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection has over 11,000 maps on line. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North and South America maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia and Africa are also represented. Collection categories include antique atlas, globe, school geography, maritime chart, state, county, city, pocket, wall, children's and manuscript maps. The collection can be used to study history, genealogy and family history. -- from the website. <http://www.davidrumsey.com/>

Research: termBlaster

"termBlaster is a tool that is designed to assist with your web (re)searches (whether you use web search engines, online encyclopedias, dictionary, or image database).

"It can handle a list of search terms that can be saved for another day. In a similar manner, you can maintain a search engine list to use in your web (re)search which can also be saved to a file that can be copied and sent to other users." -- from the website. <http://www.softpedia.com/>

PhotoJournalism: The Pulitzers

"View Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs and hear commentary from 16 photographers who have won journalism's most prestigious award." -- from the website. <http://www.newseum.org/pulitzer/>

Resource: National Energy Foundation

The nonprofit National Energy Foundation provides educational materials and programs related to natural resources, technology, conservation, and the environment. A links page has topical links to other science education sites, such as one on alternate fuel vehicles and the Captain Planet Foundation. <http://www.nef1.org/>

Writers: Jack London

Though he died relatively young at 40, Jack London lived a full life measured by his own ideal of "rugged individualism." By the time he passed away on November 22, 1916, the writer of "The Iron Heel," "White Fang" and "The Call of the Wild" had explored the South Pacific, written several important socialist texts, and authored dozens of stories, including perennial favorites. This online collection from the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE project has full-text versions of nearly all his books, a bio by Dr. Clarice Stasz of Sonoma State University, pics of London and his family, primary documents, and detailed bibliographies. <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/>

Humility: The Solar System represented graphically

Our corner of the little Milky Way Galaxy to scale:
<http://www.troybrophy.com/projects/solarsystem/>.

Resource: Free Translation

"This free translation is ideal for instant, draft-quality results. It is a 'gisted' translation, providing a basic understanding of the original text." -- from the website. <http://www.freetranslation.com/>

Religion: The Tertullian Project

Even though he didn't develop a systematic canon, Tertullian remains one of the most influential early Christian theologizers, known in some circles of hell as "the first Protestant." After converting to Christianity in the year 197, he became a formidable Defender of the Faith, most memorably in Apologeticus and Ad Nationes. Tertullian newbies will find a brief overview of his life and thought; if hooked, they can move on to one of the full-text translations of his works provided here. The site also has bibliographies, plus "The Wit and Wisdom" of Tertullian, which runs along the lines of Certum est, quia impossibile. <http://www.tertullian.org/>

Jazz: Artie Shaw

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, the great clarinetist, composer, arranger and bandleader, died in December. This site for an NPR show includes sound clips of a 2002 interview, music samples, photos, and links. <http://www.npr.org/>

And the Shaw page from Ken Burn's jazz extravaganza isn't that bad given the director's apparent disrespect for white jazz musicians.
<http://www.pbs.org/>

The epitaph Shaw wrote for Who's Who in America reads:
"He did the best he could with the material at hand."

Pencil Sharpening: Telescope Game

Actually, I can't say why you would use a telescope to knock a ball into a hole, but it's a decent little game nonetheless, especially at the higher levels: <http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm>.

Resource: Alliance for Community Technology

"The mission of the Alliance for Community Technology (ACT) is to lead in advancing the use of computing and communication technology globally to serve people (to help people help themselves) through community serving organizations. It is committed to a human-centered focus on the creation, use, understanding, training and dissemination of appropriate technologies to support communities whether these communities are defined by geography, organizational structure or common interest (i.e. whether they are defined physically or conceptually). It will focus particularly on disadvantaged communities.

"ACT pursues its mission through building value-adding alliances between the academic world, social investors, and community serving organizations (both individual, intermediaries and coalitions). It will focus especially on building complementary relationships between these entities – trying to create relationships of mutual-self interest which capitalize on the unique capabilities and missions of the various type entities. Various affiliates of the alliance should do what they do best." -- from the website. <http://www.communitytechnology.org/>

Tools: AudioGrabber

AudioGrabber, well, um, grabs digital audio from CDs and copies it digitally, rather than through the soundcard, thus enabling perfect copies of the originals. <http://audiograbber.com-us.net/>

Why we love the Internet #3,443,211:Ugly Couch Contest

Send in photos of your couch or someone else's. The victor of the ugliest couch competition gets bragging rights to the title of "Ugliest Couch in the World." Actually, the award should have been retired in 2003; that year's winner (shown here) will never be topped: <http://www.norwoodmall.com/ugly/>

Design: digitalcraft.org

"Museums do not only have the purpose to present historical objects, they also fulfill a function as part of a cultural memory. In the society of information they find themselves in front of entirely new questions, regarding the culture of new media and internet. How, for instance, to collect objects that in principle will never reach the status of a completely finished work of art? Which criteria do you have to consider to decide the relevance of an object in terms of cultural history? How can digital objects be permanently stored in the face of the rapid innovation time of software and hardware? Digitalcraft has confronted the problem of building up a digital collection and has tested different solutions. The three collection areas now contain a selection of recent web design, games and emulators as well as a historical online community." -- from the website. <http://www.digitalcraft.org/>

Books: Recommended reading by weblog

"All Consuming...watches weblogs for books that they're talking about, and displays the most popular ones on an hourly basis." Here, at any given moment, is what webloggers are reading or recommending. <http://www.allconsuming.net/>

Politics: Woody Guthrie

"Bound For Glory: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie is a comprehensive interactive exhibition that integrates history, music, photographs, essays, poems, letters and drawings to tell the remarkable story of the legendary Woody Guthrie. This exhibition is meant to be an online complement to the Smithsonian Institution's extraordinary traveling exhibition: This Land Is Your Land: The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie. It also includes informative articles and reviews of the Smithsonian production." -- from the website. <http://www.themomi.org/museum/Guthrie/index2.html>

New York: Fugitive Images

Parks, buildings, sidewalks, dumpsters, and other pieces of the urban fabric offer canvases for artists and activists. "Fugitive Images exposes conversations held on city surfaces that begin to describe the stylistic, social, cultural, and political perspectives of New York's neighborhoods." <http://www.fugitiveimages.com/>

Research: Database of Early American Furniture

The Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture has hundreds of images, a list of 12 titles considered "significant books for the study of decorative arts and material culture," with an emphasis on 18th and 19th century American material culture: browse William Pain's "The practical house carpenter, or, Youth's instructor containing a great variety of useful designs in carpentry and architecture; the five orders laid down by an entire new scale" or George Brookshaw's "A new treatise on flower painting, or, Every lady her own drawing master: containing familiar and easy instructions for acquiring a perfect knowledge of drawing flowers with accuracy and taste." <http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/DLDecArts>

History: Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online, 1841-1902

The "borough of homes and churches" was chronicled by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle under the guidance of a series of well-regarded editors, including Walt Whitman. The Brooklyn Public Library and the Institute of Museum and Library Services have digitized over seventy years of paper. The entire run from 1841 to 1902 can be searched by keyword, date, and content type. The site includes an introduction to the paper's history and a timeline. <http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/>

Theater: Didaskalia Today

The term didaskalia is taken from the inscriptions used to record
the outcomes of drama and music festivals in ancient Greece.
"Didaskalia" is an electronic resource and journal dedicated to
the study of classical Greek and Roman drama in performance.
The site includes the journal archives (such topics as  "Ancient
Drama in Performance" and "Classics and Its Position in Future
Cultural Politics"), study resources, and an interactive discussion
area known (inevitably) as the Agora.
<http://didaskalia.open.ac.uk/>

Writers: Will Eisner (1917-2005) R.I.P.

Will Eisner.com is the official site for the comic and graphic novel writer and artist who died in January during a quadruple bypass. The site has a biography; a bibliography of his graphic novels, biographical and instructional works; sections on the Spirit and on his John Law detective character; images from an adaptation of "Oliver Twist;" and links to other sites. <http://www.willeisner.com/>

The Arts: Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative

The UCBerkeley Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative offers cartographic tools for "visualizing and analyzing historical and cultural phenomena...maps based on a theme, era and region." <http://www.ecai.org/>

Preparedness: Disasters and Emergencies (MedlinePlus)

The site of NIH's U.S. National Library of Medicine has links to information on coping with family and citizen emergencies, including discussions of legal and policy questions, pages on specific problems such as giving birth under emergency conditions and crisis management for children and seniors, and news on current disasters and relief work. <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/>

History: The War of 1812

The Avalon Project at Yale Law presents documents, such as the U.S. act declaring war and the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, relating to the War of 1812 between Great Britain and its former colonies. <http://www.yale.edu/>

American Culture: The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives

The Center, located at the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, is "committed to preserving a documentary heritage of the religious, organizational, economic, cultural, personal, social and family life of American Jewry." The site features interactive exhibits on Judaism, the center's journal, genealogy resources, a guide to creating a synagogue archive, a description of holdings, and related research materials. <http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/>

American Civilization: The National Toy Hall of Fame

The National Toy Hall of Fame at Strong Museum in Rochester, NY avers that toys "have achieved longevity and national significance in the world of play and imagination." The site has pics and background on the more than 30 toys in the collection, including Barbie, the bicycle, hula hoop, jacks, Legos, roller skates, and Silly Putty. G.I. Joe, the rocking horse, and Scrabble were the most recent inductees. <http://www.strongmuseum.org/NTHoF/NTHoF.html>

Conservation: Energy Efficient Rehab Advisor

The Energy Efficient Rehab Advisor was developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD to "to help the housing community improve energy efficiency in existing buildings during rehabilitation and renovation." <http://www.rehabadvisor.pathnet.org/>

Nature: High Winds

When the cactus blew over on my balcony, I looked up high winds: "The highest winds ever recorded in the world (by fixed equipment) - 231 Mph were recorded on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire on April 12, 1934." -- from the website. <http://www.nhoem.state.nh.us/mitigation/section_iii.htm>

Nature: Iranian Cheetah Society

The Iranian Cheetah Society is fighting to save the endangered Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. Still images and video clips of the cat and other Iranian wildlife are featured, plus a children's section and news about the activities of the society. Another reason not to attack Iran. <http://www.iraniancheetah.org/>

History/Art: Medieval Mystery

An entertainment created by the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Medieval Mystery uses a game format to illustrate one of the primary tasks of museum curators and archivists: determining the authenticity or not of works of art. Using a group of late 15th century Dutch paintings with an uncertain provenance, the game attempts to answer four questions: What are the origins of the paintings? How do they relate to each other? What did they mean in the 15th century? Who was the Master of the Embroidered Foliage to whom they were attributed in 1926 by Max Friedländer, the German art historian. <http://www.clarkart.edu/mystery/>

Activism: SNCC 1960-1966

"SNCC 1960-1966: Six Years of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee" covers the first years of the organization's history, presenting its relationship to nonviolence, the Vietnam War, white liberalism, feminism, and Black Power, and offering profiles of such prominent members as John Lewis, Julian Bond, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, Ella Baker, and Stokeley Carmichael, plus background on events (sit-ins, Freedom Rides, the Freedom Ballot, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and the 1963 March on Washington). <http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/>

Writers: Edgar Allen Poe

E.A. Poe Society of Baltimore
<http://www.eapoe.org/index.htm>

Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site
<http://www.nps.gov/edal/>

Edgar Allen Poe Letters at the University of Virginia
<http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/poe/PoeLetters.html>

The Raven Society of the University of Virginia
<http://scs.student.virginia.edu/~ravens/>

NPR: Edgar Allen Poe's 'Raven'
<http://www.npr.org/>