Writers: Thomas Hardy

The website of the Thomas Hardy Association, founded to advance the reknown of the creator of such works as "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" and "Far from the Madding Crowd," has a chronology, info on editions of his works, maps of the fictional Wessex where his stories take place, and links to related sites (such as one for his home in Dorset). For access to some material, you'll need to join the association.
<http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/>

Photojournalism: Photo by Weegee

Scene of the Crime: Photo by Weegee, an extension to a 2005-2006 exhibit at the Getty on the photojournalist Weegee (Arthur Fellig), known for his crime scene photos and images of New York City nightlife in the 1930s and 1940s, has pictures from the exhibition, audio clips from interviews with th artist (explaining his unusual darkroom practices, how he beat everyone to the crime scenes, and such), and a video on the Fellig's work.
<http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/weegee/>

Apps: Retrieve that angry email

Yankback is an email recovery system that lets you save yourself embarrassment if you suffer one of those "Oh No!" moments where you realize you've just inadvertently sent or forwarded an email to the wrong person. It works equally well to add a forgotten attachment, without having to send a second "oops" email. The tool doesn't let you recall an email once it's been delivered to a recipient's desktop mailbox, but it's the next best thing. It gives you a few extra minutes -- you decide how long -- to get it back. The service will be offered on a subscription basis for $24.97 a year, with a 15-day free trial. If you have more than one email account, you can get additional Yankback subs for $9.95 annually. Yankback works with PCs, Macs and Linux machines, and it's easy to setup on most email clients, such as Outlook or Eudora. Unfortunately, it won't work with webmail services, like Hotmail or AOL, but it will handle GMail accounts that are setup for POP3.
<http://www.yankback.com/>

Cartography: Library of CongressMap Collections 1500 - 2004

"The Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress holds more than 4.5 million items, of which Map Collections represents only a small fraction, those that have been converted to digital form.

"The focus of Map Collections is Americana and Cartographic Treasures of the Library of Congress. These images were created from maps and atlases and, in general, are restricted to items that are not covered by copyright protection.

"Map Collections is organized according to seven major categories [ Cities/Towns | Conservation/Environment | Discovery/Exploration | General Maps | Cultural Landscapes | Military Battles/Campaigns | Transportation/Communication]. Because a map will be assigned to only one category, unless it is part of more than one core collection, searching Map Collections at this level will provide the most complete results since the indexes for all categories are searched simultaneously." -- from the website.
American Memory (Library of Congress):
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html>

The Arts: Tiffany @ The Met

"An expansion of the Deedee Wigmore galleries in The American Wing is devoted to the arts of Louis C. Tiffany, one of the most versatile and talented American artists working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The collection highlights the Museum's preeminent collections and features Tiffany's windows, lamps, furniture, mosaics, blown Favrile glass vases, pottery, enamelwork, and jewelry. In addition, there is a rotating display selected from the Museum's collection of more than 400 design drawings from Tiffany's studios." -- from the website. <http://www.metmuseum.org/>

Pencil Sharpening: The Letters

Simple, slow to get into, addictive (improve your typing in the process):
The Letters2. <http://2addicted.com/letters>

American Civ: The Shakers

The site for the Shaker Village in Hancock, Massachusetts, a nonprofit "that preserves and presents to the public the Shakers' legacy at their community....The Shaker Central Ministry closed the community in 1960," has a virtual tour of the grounds, a history of the Shaker social and religious movement in America, a bibliography (from 2001), a Hancock community census, and related data. Ken Burns American Stories: The Shakers, meanwhile, a companion to a 1984 PBS doc about "the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing,...[who] because of their ecstatic dancing...[were called] Shakers. Though they were celibate, they are the most enduring religious experiment in American history. They believed in pacifism, natural health and hygiene." The site includes a timeline (1736-2002), background info, video clips, plus material for educators, who afterward, given the ultimate outcome of the Shaker trial run, may have a harder time making the case for abstinence.
Hancock Shaker Village:
<http://www.hancockshakervillage.org/>
Ken Burns American Stories:
<http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/shakers/>

Writers: Walt Whitman's Lost Notebooks 1850s-1860s

Poet at Work: Walt Whitman Notebooks 1850s-1860s from the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress not only offers access to four of the poet's notebooks (plus a cardboard butterfly) that disappeared from the federal book repository in 1942 -- they were returned 1995, but also provides related essays about the location of the notebooks while they were absent and about the process of preserving and restoring them once they turned up, plus a gallery of pictures on the conservation process. <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/whitman/>

Treacle: Cute Overload

"At Cute Overload®, we scour the Web
for only the finest
in Cute Imagery™.
Imagery that is
Worth Your Internet
Browsing Time. We offer
an overwhelming amount
of cuteness to fill your
daily visual allowance.
Drink it in!" -- from the website.
<http://cuteoverload.com/>

Gardening: Identifying and Cultivating Palms

At least two of the palms on my balcony have grown taller than I am, so it might have made more sense to google "movers" than "Archontophoenix." Anyhow, this page, from a company that sells the plants, "has information on palm tree care and how to grow palm trees on about 200 species of palms that are most commonly cultivated in gardens. Listed are the scientific and palm common names (if one exists), cultural requirements for each species, mugshots, hints as to successful growing, and other interesting data." <http://www.junglemusic.net/palms/>