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Newsletter 8-26-07
“How Products Are Made explains and details the manufacturing process of a wide variety of products, from daily household items to complicated electronic equipment and heavy machinery. The site provides step by step descriptions of the assembly and the manufacturing process (complemented with illustrations and diagrams) Each product also has related information such as the background, how the item works, who invented the product, raw materials that were used, product applications, by-products that are generated, possible future developments, quality control procedures, etc.”
http://www.madehow.com/
THOMAS was launched in January of 1995, at the inception of the 104th Congress. The leadership of the 104th Congress directed the Library of Congress to make federal legislative information freely available to the public. The many things you can find at this site include, calendar, schedules, committee information, treaties, Government resources, and much more.
http://thomas.loc.gov/
MyMoney.gov is the U.S. government’s website dedicated to teaching all Americans the basics about financial education. Whether you are planning to buy a home, balancing your checkbook, or investing in your 401k, the resources on MyMoney.gov can help you do it better. Throughout the site, you will find important information from 20 federal agencies government wide.
http://www.mymoney.gov/
“History is everywhere, in nearly 400 national parks and every hometown. It covers everything from the remnants of ancient civilizations to the boyhood homes of U.S. Presidents to the stirring sagas of hard-fought wars to the reverberations of one woman refusing to give up her seat on a bus. History is a part of who we were, who we are, and who we will be.
As you explore these pages, we hope you find what you are looking for – but even more importantly, we hope you discover something that surprises you. We invite you to learn more about history and how the National Park Service works to preserve it.”
http://www.nps.gov/history/
Search over 20 million records from military history. You can sign up at this web site to enjoy all of the other benefits of membership. Gain access to the latest Military news, benefits updates, education and career opportunities.
http://www.military.com/
At this ’time capsule’ site you will be lead through a “wizard” that allows you to select specific headlines, birthdays, songs, TV shows, toys, and books for the selected date. You can edit the information, or even add your own information to the final page!
When you’re through, you’ll be presented with your own customized page that includes all the information you’ve chosen, plus typical consumer prices from that year, Academy Award winners that year, etc. They currently have data online for the years 1800 through 2002, although data for the years 1800 – 1875 is probably spotty.
http://dmarie.com/timecap/
“The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.”
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Newsletter 8-19-07
This year and most recently with the major weather events in the Southwest, the hurricanes in the Caribbean, and other weather related happening we need to have some good resources of weather related information. The following sites are good references of past and present weather happenings.
National Climatic Data Center(NCDC) is the world’s largest active archive of weather data. NCDC produces numerous climate publications and responds to data requests from all over the world. NCDC operates the World Data Center for Meteorology which is co-located at NCDC in Asheville, North Carolina, and the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology which is located in Boulder, Colorado.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/billionz.html
NESDIS operates NOAA’s National Data Centers for Climate, Geophysics, Oceans, and Coasts. Through these Data Centers and other centers of data, NESDIS provides and ensures timely access to global environmental data from satellites and other sources, provides information services, and develops science products.
http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/
Another site to watch is NOAA’s weather watch. This site has current weather data for all over the world with listings major storms, events, disasters, and forecasts, warnings, and watches. This information is current and very complete. Right now they have a lot of data on DEAN, plus flooding in different areas of the states.
http://www.noaawatch.gov/
My favorite for local weather showing satellite and regional and local radar is weather underground. I have found that the updates are accurate and very current usually within 1 to 3 minutes.
http://www.wunderground.com
This list wouldn’t be complete without a listing for the National Weather Service(NWS). Most all of you have heard the radio and TV briefings and weather reports from the NWS. Ok so here is there web site.
http://www.weather.gov/
Continuing with the weather and climate theme….
The Air Quality Index (AQI) is an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells you how clean or polluted your outdoor air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for you. The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. EPA calculates the AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particle pollution (also known as particulate matter), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. For each of these pollutants, EPA has established national air quality standards to protect public health.
http://www.airnow.gov/
“Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”
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Newsletter 8-12-07
Today’s newsletter is all about health and health related information. Each site listed has so much to offer so take your time when visiting each site.
The national cancer institute has a good selection of information on all types of cancer and cancer related illnesses. There are areas on treatment, how to cope, what to do, testing, and more. This is a good reference site to bookmark.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancer_information/
John Hopkins Medical Institute offers a weekly podcast looking at the top medical stories of the week for people who want to become informed participants in their own health care. With Elizabeth Tracey, director of electronic media for Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Rick Lange M.D., chief of clinical cardiology at Johns Hopkins. The description of each podcast and program notes are readily available.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/mediaII/Podcasts.html
The Mayo Clinic offers a great place to start to do a self diagnosis of any ailment you might have. They cover both adult and children symptoms. As soon as you click on a problem, the questions begin to help you define in great detail what your symptoms are so an accurate diagnoses can be made based on your input.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/symptom-checker/DS00671
Another place to check to help with diagnosing a medical problem is Medline Plus. This site offers animated graphics and each tutorial explains a procedure or condition in easy-to-read language. You can also listen to the tutorial if you so desire. All the animations are Flash based so make sure you have the Flash plugin installed.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials.html
The Atlas of the Body from the American Medical Association has a completes summary of what happened within your body. I checked on Nervous System to see how well and informative it was and came away with a lot of interesting information. This site will keep you attention for many hours and you read about how the body functions.
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/7140.html
“The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.”
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Newsletter 8-5-07
After watching the reading the news stories of the bridge collapse in Minnesota, I feel the web site is of utmost importance and a good reference site to check out.
“With each passing day, aging and overburdened infrastructure threatens the economy and quality of life in every state, city and town in the nation. Read about the infrastructure issues in your region and how you can help raise the grade on America’s failing infrastructure.”
http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/index.cfm
The National Atlas staff has prepared a revised series of Printable Maps for each District. These simple, attractive, and useful maps show:
* Congressional districts for the 110th Session
* State and county boundaries
* Interstate and United States highways
* Selected rivers and waterbodies
* Major cities
Print pre-formatted maps on a variety of topics.Also you will find the following options:
Customize your own map for printing or viewing.
Investigate the layers that you can mix.
http://nationalatlas.gov/
Do you have a digital camera? I bet most of you do by now. What happens if you erase the pictures on the memory card or if you delete them by mistake? I have a great answer for these questions. This is one of my favorite sites that I bookmarked as soon as a read a couple of pages. Check out sound money advice.
soundmoneyadvice.com
“There’s lots of ways you can lose photos on a memory card. The card can malfunction. You might accidentally erase some of your photos. Your kids might accidentally erase some of your photos. You might even accidentally *reformat* your entire card. But don’t go too crazy. In general your images are rarely ever truly gone and it’s just going to take a bit of work to get them back.
1. Don’t panic. Like I said. You will probably be able to get the shots back. Don’t let it ruin whatever you are doing or shooting.
2. Once you know that you need to recover photos from a card stop using that card immediately. Don’t try to reformat it. Don’t reuse it. Put it away and wait until you get home where you can try recovery. If you do keep shooting with the card you might overwrite some of the data and be unable to recover some of your photos.
3. When you get home run DataRescue’s PhotoRescue. You can download and run this software for free on your memory card.
4. If PhotoRescue can recover your images they will show you the thumbnails of the images. At this point you will need to buy the software if you want to use it to actually recover your images. The software cost’s $29 but usually this is a small price to pay to have all of your images back.
I used PhotoRescue on Saturday to get back all of the shots that I took at Arrington’s big party and it worked like a charm.”
–Thanks to thomashawk.com for these words of wisdom.
“This online library of illustrated books is a volunteer-driven project. It has grown slowly since 1996 from the work of a single man and a handful of books, to a vibrant volunteer-driven organization publishing new books and translations every week. As you explore our library, we hope you will find a comfortable niche or two in these tens of thousands of beautifully illustrated pages that our dedicated volunteers have gathered together over the years. “
http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/index.htm
“I’m sure you’ve heard it before: if you want to reduce the stress in your life you need to simplify your lifestyle. Of course, this is much easier said than done, because it’s the ants, not the elephants that seem to get the best of us every time. Instead of tackling the big problems that seem overwhelming, it helps to remedy the small problems first. A few small changes can make a significant impact to overall happiness.”
http://frugalist.instantcreditcard.com/2007/the-frugality-cheat-sheet-147-tiny-tips-to-live-healthier-happier-greener-and-better/
“Doing wrong is fun for a fool, but living wisely brings pleasure to the sensible”
