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Newsletter 01/18/2009
With all the pomp and ceremony going on this week in Washington D.C., the next couple of web sites should be of interest.
From the web site:
“Welcome to the District of Columbia’s 2009 Presidential Inauguration website. This site will assist you in finding valuable information about the events surrounding the 56th Presidential Inauguration, including lodging information, transportation, security measures and closures.” Don’t forget the events calendar while you are looking around.
http://inauguration.dc.gov/index.asp
Next venture over to this site.
Presidential Inaugurations is a collection of approximately 400 items or 2,000 digital files relating to inaugurations from George Washington’s in 1789 to George W. Bush’s inauguration of 2001. This presentation includes diaries and letters of presidents and of those who witnessed inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, broadsides, inaugural tickets and programs, prints, photographs, and sheet music. The selections are drawn from the Presidential Papers in the Manuscript Division and from the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Music Division, and the General Collections of the Library of Congress.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml
Did you know that the Smithsonian Institution was started with money from a British scientist?
In 1826, James Smithson, a British scientist, drew up his last will and testament, naming his nephew as beneficiary. Smithson stipulated that, should the nephew die without heirs (as he would in 1835), the estate should go “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.”
http://www.si.edu/about/history.htm
OpenCongress.org is a free, open-source, non-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to help make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement. OpenCongress.org is a joint project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation. I use this site to check up on current bills before committees and who is promoting them. Also check out the committees too.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/all
This next site has in my opinion, the most important documents in U.S. history. These documents are among the thousands of public laws, Supreme Court decisions, inaugural speeches, treaties, constitutional amendments, and other documents that have influenced the course of U.S. history. Some very interesting reading and some boring reading but all extremely important.
ttp://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?flash=true&page=milestone
In the 1400′s a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat
his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have ‘the rule of
thumb’.
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Newsletter 01/11/2009
When your doctor prescribes a drug for you, do you know what it is suppose to do, what the side effects are? How about an independent source for drug information. Check out Drug Digest. It is a noncommercial, evidence-based, consumer health and drug information site dedicated to empowering consumers to make informed choices about drugs and treatment options.
http://www.drugdigest.org/wps/portal/ddigest
The above is a good source but if you want to verify that they are giving you correct information or need another source, this site will help. Actually I would search both sites to compare information and then make a judgment call.
http://www.rxlist.com/script/main/hp.asp
Now since we are feeling bad and have checked out all the drugs, why don’t we just go out and get some fast food? If you do you better know what to eat and what not to eat based on the total calories and fat. You don’t’ know that at Big Mac is 560 calories and 30 grams of fat? You will if you venture over to this site and check out the ‘Fast Food Calorie Counter’.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/flash/health/caloriecounter/caloriecounter.html
Most of us have eaten or eat on a regular basis some type of cold cereal. General Mills has started post cute little icon on their products to tell you how healthy each product is for you. They call it their goodness corner. Check it out and see the icon they use so at a quick glance you can tell if it is ok for you and or the kiddies.
http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/health_wellness/goodness_corner.aspx
Ok, let’s complete this with a source to find out the calories in any food, well most of the popular foods anyway.
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calories_in_food.htm
I just finished watch the first episode of ‘24’ for this season and seeing the air traffic control made me check out this fact. The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour: 61,000
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Merry Christmas 12/22/2008
I want to take this time to wish all of you a
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Remember why we celebrate Christmas? If you don’t or forgot check out the following:
http://www.christiananswers.net/christmas/home.htm
Why December 25 is the day of celebration? I have found many possible answers but the following fits the More Interesting Info theme.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2000/dec08.html
The History Channel has some interesting Christmas Videos to watch.
http://www.history.com/minisites/christmas
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Newsletter 01/04/2009
Welcome to 2009. I hope this will be a much better year than 2008.
OK, everyone, together think positive and maybe it will help.
This is for all the space cadets and space viewers out there.
For you viewing pleasure are some really cool images from somewhere deep in space.
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/hubble-captures.htm
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/xmastreecluster.html
Flickr is a great web site for viewing and posting pictures of all types as all of you probably know, but how do you get the best use out of Flickr?
This blog has a post that answers many questions on how to get the most out of the Flickr web site.
http://www.labnol.org/internet/pictures/flickr-guide-do-everything-with-flickr-pictures/4973/
Since we are talking about Flick, we might as well mention the best search tool to find pictures on Flick.
Go over to www.compfight.com and give it a try for yourself. Be sure to look at the options.
Next talk about youtube.com. Most of the videos there are in poor resolution or leave a lot to be desired.
Here is a good way to search youtube.com to find only the videos that can be viewed in high resolution.
Try this on your next youtube.com search: site:youtube.com “watch in normal quality watch in high quality” and then put in your search criteria.
You should see at the bottom of each video an option to watch in high quality.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWbu5R5N7J0 (from a video game)
Since my economy is in the pits and I suppose yours might be in a similar situation, then go over to this site and check out the deals.
It gives you their hottest deals or you can search for a deal.
www.deallinker.com
Did you know –
The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this…)
The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
