El Dorado County Library's What's New on the Internet This Week

What's Hot on the Internet This Week
Week of May 25th, 2009
The arrow indicates a recommended site and a points to a site with local information.

Alas, Alack, Farewell! This is the very last What's Hot... Webpage!

The author of this series of Webpages is retiring on May 29th and will not continue updating the "What's Hot" page after he leaves the Library. So, it's time to say goodbye. The "What's Hot on the Internet" page has been produced weekly since 1996, so it must be time to move on and get an iPhone or a Blackberry! ... or read a book! The first page was dated April 8th, 1996 and looked a lot different than the one produced today. Here's a copy of that first page (minus a few decorative touches): WHAT'S HOT ON THE INTERNET: Week of April 8, 1996. Originally, the page was produced as an "in-house" news feature helping our staff find new Websites from our Intranet. Eventually, we decided to set it on our Public Website. Notice how dated (and simple) the form was and how few of the links continue to work! The life of a Website is quite short. Even our domain name has changed, making the links to the Library's homepage and Archive page unworkable. Whereas, the domain name for our Web pages was originally owned by a private Internet provider (who has since ceased business), we've now purchased and use our own singular domain name and our County's Webserver as our host: El Dorado County Library. Note how much better our Homepage looks and how much more colorful our site is now than it was on that 13-year old page! So, for the last time, here's the links to some of sites that I've found as I surfed the 'Net during the last couple of weeks and some of my favorites that I couldn't help but recommend to you once more time. Thanks for visiting and reading this series over the years.

The 50th Anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum: "With the opening of the exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward on May 15, 2009, the Guggenheim inaugurates a yearlong celebration of art, architecture, and innovation to mark the 50th anniversary of its landmark building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Along with this opening show, groundbreaking exhibitions are planned throughout the year, including The Sweeney Decade: Acquisitions at the 1959 Inaugural (June 5–September 2, 2009), which draws on work acquired by director James Johnson Sweeney during his tenure from 1952 to 1960; and Kandinksy (September 18, 2009–January 10, 2010), a full-scale retrospective of Vasily Kandinsky, an artist who has been closely linked to the history of the Guggenheim Museum and has been collected in depth for the museum's permanent collection since its founding." (Subject(s): Guggenheim Museum (New York)--History)
AARP International: AgeSource / AgeStats Worldwide: "These two databases have been created by AARP to facilitate the international exchange of policy and program-relevant information in aging. AgeSource Worldwide identifies several hundred information resources in some 25 countries which are significant either in size or in their unique coverage of particular aging-related issues. The resources include, among others, clearinghouses, libraries, databases, training modules, major reports, and Web metasites... AgeStats Worldwide provides access to comparative statistical data that compare the situation of older adults across countries or regions around a variety of issues areas. The most recent data and projections as far ahead as 2050 are provided where available." (Subject(s): Aging--Statistics)
Alpha Consumer: "Kimberly Palmer, senior editor for U.S. News & World Report, writes about how to save money, avoid scams, manage debt, and be a savvy shopper." This is her blog detailing her findings and her tips and suggestions on how to make your money go further and so that you can survive in these tough times. (Subject(s): Consumers)
American Centuries: History and Art from New England: "Explore artifacts from our museum and historic manuscripts from our library that reveal the history of New England." "American Centuries features a digital collection of approximately 2000 objects and transcribed document pages from Memorial Hall Museum and Library. An image of each of these items appears on an Item Page accompanied by interpretive text available on age-appropriate levels. Museum staff authored the text content with review by teachers, school librarians, and nationally recognized scholars." (Subject(s): New England--History)
Ancient Inventions: This site has been created by staff at the Smith College Museum of Ancient Inventions to showcase some of the tools and artifacts in their collection. From Warp-Weighted Looms built in 7000 B.C. to Self-Moving Stand (Egypt, Greece) from 70 C.E., this site provides descriptions and photographs for many of the machines in their Museum. (Subject(s): Inventions--History)
BrainyQuote: Discover what the Famous said about many, many topics. Find quotations by topic (Age, Religion, Politics), by type of author (dancer, inventor, soldier) or search the site via keyword for an apt phrase or description or person. (Subject(s): Quotations)
DayHiker: Extreme Day Hiking Tips: "Why Day Hike? Hike: It's elegant and egalitarian! Think about a hike: Low overhead and anyone can do this! No set of wheels to buy and master, as in bicycling, skateboarding, motorcycling, Indy 500 auto racing ... no ball to control - as in golf, tennis, baseball, football, bowling, basketball, hot air ballooning ... no fighting the elements for balance with a recalcitrant object - as in skiing, surfing, kayaking, sailing, flying ... no body threatening activity - as in boxing, wrestling, marathon running, ski diving." So, that said, find out here where, when and how you can do it! (Subject(s): Hiking)
Early Advertising of the West, 1867-1918: This Web exhibition is presented as part of the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections: "The Early Advertising of the West collection consists of over 450 print advertisements published in local magazines, city directories, and theater pamphlets from 1867 to 1918. These advertisements were selected and digitized in order to help researchers and students examine social, cultural and economic trends during this period. The collection is categorized into thematic groups and features advertisements about health care and hygiene products, liquor, tobacco, machinery, manufacturing, transportation, fashion, food and household goods and local tourism. Due to the lack of government drug inspection and regulation during this era, patent medicines and medical treatments such as tonics, tablets and electrical body belts are well represented. Many of the advertisements shed light on the history and social conditions of the Pacific Northwest. In particular, they contain information regarding real estate, cost and standard of living, schools, and tourist destinations in Washington and Oregon. Some advertisements document the marketing efforts of local companies like Rainier Beer and The Bon Marche. In addition, the collection touches upon important historical issues such as the Washington state prohibition movement, the 1897 Alaskan Gold Rush and regional railroad construction. It also provides examples of race and gender based stereotypes commonly used by advertisers." (Subject(s): Advertising--The West--History)
Eternity Travel: Hope you're ready for some humor! "Welcome to EternityTravel.com! What do we do? We give the discerning, God(s)-fearing ancient Egyptian consumer the tools and information to plan for a safe, speedy, comfortable trip to the afterlife. Here on EternityTravel.com, you can: * rent or buy the perfect tomb * schedule reliable mummification services * purchase a quality mummy case [and] * and order all the necessary Eternity Extras ...all in a few easy steps, with no lines or waiting!" (Subject(s): Mummies)
Early Primate Evolution: A Survey of Geological Time and Evolution Leading to Hominins: "Primates are remarkably recent animals. Most animal species flourished and became extinct long before the first monkeys and their prosimian ancestors evolved. While the earth is about 4.54 billion years old and the first life dates to at least 3.5 billion years ago, the first primates did not appear until around 50-55 million years ago. That was after the dinosaurs had become extinct." This tutorial has been created and [is] maintained by Dr. Dennis O'Neil, Behavioral Sciences Department, Palomar College, San Marcos, California. For more information visit this site from NOVA as part of their Science Now project: First Primates. (Subject(s): Evolution & Primates)
Library of Western Fur Trade Historical Source Documents: "These documents are accounts of the Rocky Mountain fur trade during the first half of the 19th century. Most of these are either primary or secondary historical sources; that is, either written by, or as told by those who were actually there. These documents have been transcribed from printed or manuscript form." The Library includes such documents as: John Ball's Across the Plains to Oregon, 1832, Warren Angus Ferris' Life in the Rocky Mountains and Alexander Ross' Journal of Snake Country Expedition, 1824. (Subject(s): Pioneers--West (U.S.)--History--19th Century & Trappers--West (U.S.)--History--19th Century)
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index: "The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™ has been developed to provide the official measure for health and well-being. It's the voice of Americans and the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to measure what people believe constitutes a good life. Over the next 25 years, the Well-Being Index will collect and measure the daily pulse of the nation's well-being and provide best-in-class solutions for a healthier world. By helping Americans understand how work impacts life and health and conversely how life affects work and health, we can work together to improve well-being for a better way of life." (Subject(s): Health--Statistics)
Grand Coulee Dam Collection: "This collection contains images of photographs and text documenting the creation of the Grand Coulee Dam, built during the first half of the twentieth century. Included are images of the Works Progress Administration work camps, land clearing activities, the moving of towns, and the dam construction itself. Also presented are documents outlining arguments both for and against this enormous undertaking." The collection contains documents, photographs, pamphlets, books and more. (Subject(s): Grand Coulee Dam (Wash.)--History)

How Does a [Car] Dealership Work?

As reported recently in the news, Daimler-Chrysler has announced plans to close 300 of their automobile dealerships this year. This site details what goes on in one of those dealerships and how that business is organized and how it works. It was written by Dan Carney, a veteran automotive journalist: "There are more than 23,000 car dealerships in the U.S., employing more than 1 million people. Approaching an auto dealership can be as intimidating and confusing as arriving to pick up a date at her parents' house. Who are these people and what do they do? Whom should I speak with? Will I make it out of there alive? We see dealerships everywhere, and most people eventually visit at least one. But other than "They make money by selling us cars," most of us have little knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the business. To give you better insight into how a dealership works, we've broken down and dissected the various parts that make up the whole." (Subject(s): Automobiles--Purchasing)

HubbleSite: "HubbleSite is the home of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the renowned orbiting telescope whose discoveries have forever altered our knowledge of the universe." Of particular interest now here are the information and news reports about the repairs made to the telescope recently by 2 Atlantis astronauts. For that, go to the Hubble NewsCenter to find "the complete collection of every Hubble Space Telescope news release and its supporting materials, along with tools and resources designed to further your knowledge of astronomy." (Subject(s): Hubble Telescope)
FRONTLINE: Inside the Meltdown: "FRONTLINE investigates the causes of the worst economic crisis in 70 years and how the government responded. The film chronicles the inside stories of the Bear Stearns deal, Lehman Brothers' collapse, the propping up of insurance giant AIG, and the $700 billion bailout. Inside the Meltdown examines what Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke didn't see, couldn't stop and haven't been able to fix." This and other videos may now be viewed online. Visit PBS Video to see what videos are currently available. (Subject(s): Economics--United States)
Internet Archive: "The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in the Presidio of San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections." So why do they do it? "Libraries exist to preserve society's cultural artifacts and to provide access to them. If libraries are to continue to foster education and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it's essential for them to extend those functions into the digital world." (Subject(s): Digital Libraries)
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb): Well they're not bashful about what they do! The editors proudly proclaim they're "The biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet." And facts, facts and more facts they do provide. Want to know if your memory about an actor having a slight role in some long-forgotten movie is accurate? IMDb is for you! Want to know how many films Kar Wai Wong has directed? IMDb has a list. Want to know where a particular movie was filmed? Find it out at IBDb. Want to know the name of a song from a particular film? IMDb provides a soundtrack listing. (Subject(s): Movies)
Mapping the National Parks: "The Mapping the National Parks collection documents the history, cultural aspects and geological formations of areas that eventually became National Parks. The collection consists of approximately 200 maps dating from the 17th century to the present, reflecting early mapping of the areas that would become four National Parks, as well as the parks themselves. Production of this collection is being supported by a generous gift from The Rockefeller Foundation." This exhibition is part of one of my favorite sites: The Library of Congress' American Memory project. (Subject(s): National Parks and Reserves--History--Maps)
Meeting of Frontiers: "Meeting of Frontiers is a bilingual, multimedia English-Russian digital library that tells the story of the American exploration and settlement of the West, the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East, and the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. It is intended for use in U.S. and Russian schools and libraries and by the general public in both countries. Scholars, particularly those who do not have ready access to major research libraries, also will benefit from the mass of primary material included in Meeting of Frontiers, much of which has never been published or is extremely rare... The Meeting of Frontiers site was unveiled in December 1999. It included more than twenty-five hundred items, comprising some seventy thousand images, from the rare book, manuscript, photograph, map, film, and sound recording collections of the Library of Congress. Expansions of the site took place in September 2000, January 2001, May 2001, December 2001, September 2002 and May 2003, adding many thousands of items and accompanying explanatory text." (Subject(s): Russia--Foreign relations--United States & United States--Foreign relations--Russia)
OECD: Report and Statistics on the United States: "The United States, along with 19 other countries, signed the Convention founding the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development [OECD] on 14 December 1960, thereby pledged its full dedication to achieving the Organisation’s fundamental aims." In the process of fulfilling their aims, the OECD collects and collates data about the U.S. "www.oecd.org/us is a one-stop-shop for OECD reports and statistics on the United States. Browse the documents in chronological order or by topic (e.g. economy, trade, development, environment, energy, social issues)." (Subject(s): United States--Statistics)
On the Edge: "This website highlights a special collection of more than 200 high-resolution images of fore-edge paintings housed in the Rare Books Department of the Boston Public Library. The books and images on the site can be explored in a variety of ways, either by wandering through the main Gallery, or browsing the works by Subject, Book title, or Painting title." "Unlike the spine and covers of a bookbinding, the page edges are not usually decorated, however… A fore-edge painting is where the page block is fanned and an image applied to the stepped surface. If the page edges are themselves gilded or marbled, this results in the image disappearing when the book is relaxed. When re-fanned, the painting magically re-appears." (Subject(s): Fore-Edge Painting)
RecipeSource: "RecipeSource is one of the oldest recipe sites on the Internet. Our collection was started in 1993 by Jennifer Snider when she discovered the wonders of Usenet newsgroups & Internet mailing lists as a student at the University of California at Berkeley. She started saving recipes posted to those sources and soon amassed thousands of recipes. When her friends found out about the collection, we encouraged her to put them on the web, and she agreed, provided we helped her. After several months of hard work, the recipes first appeared on the web in 1995 as SOAR: The Searchable Online Archive of Recipes. From our start with around 10,000 recipes we've grown the collection to 7 times that size, and had our pages accessed millions of times from around the world." (Subject(s): Recipes)
SafeKids: Interent Safety & Civility: "SafeKids.com is one of the oldest and most enduring sites for Internet safety. Its creator, Larry Magid, is the author of the original 1994 brochure, “Child Safety on the Information Highway” and is also a technology journalist." The site discusses the impact that various technologies (the Internet, iPhones, RSS feeds, Blogs, etc.) has had on children and teens. It also reports on various laws that have an impact on child 'Net safety and how proposed state and federal legislation might help to protect our children. (Subject(s): Internet and Children)
NOVA | Space Shuttle Disaster: "Visit the companion website to the NOVA program Space Shuttle Disaster, watch streaming video of the hour-long broadcast episode, see a simulation of Columbia's launch that shows how a lightweight piece of debris caused catastrophic damage to the shuttle." This video and its companion Website has been created by producers at NOVA |PBS and you can visit their homepage to see what other shows are available. (Subject(s): )
Turner Classic Movies (TCM): "Turner Classic Movies presents the greatest motion pictures of all time from one of the largest film libraries in the world. Find video, photos, forums, blogs and shop for some of the best movies ever made only at TCM!" In addition, you can use their site to access a movie database with over 150,000 listings for movies, actors and actresses and directors. Of course, you can also find a complete schedule for the films playing on the cable station today and all month. (Subject(s): Movies & Television)
The United States Agriculture & Food Law and Policy Blog: "Welcome to the U.S. Agricultural & Food Law and Policy Blog. [This site is] A comprehensive news, research, and information resource for the nation’s agricultural community. Provided as a partnership of the National Agricultural Law Center, the nation’s leading source of agricultural and food law research and information, and the American Agricultural Law Association, the only national professional organization focusing on the legal needs of the agricultural community." (Subject(s): Agriculture--United States & Law--United States)
What's Cooking America: "Linda Stradley is a cookbook author, culinary historian, web site editor, and internet entrepreneur who has been publishing her culinary website What's Cooking America since 1997... Her website, What’s Cooking America, is a family-friendly culinary portal to the web which enjoys thousand of visitor each day. Her food articles and cooking history information appear in newspapers & magazines worldwide. Linda considers her website a "work in progress," and is always working to make it better." (Subject(s): Cooking & Recipes)
White House Museum: "Welcome to the WHITE HOUSE MUSEUM, the unofficial virtual museum and tour of the president’s residence. 1.5 million visitors go through the real White House each year. But they see only a handful of rooms. Even special tours visit only a handful more. This online tour will take you through more than 140 areas in the grounds and mansion of the White House with photos and illustrations going back more than 200 years." (Subject(s): White House--History)
Word Buff: A Word Lover's Guide to Word Games: "Word-Buff.com is especially devoted to covering the fanatical sub-cultures that have exploded in recent years around Crosswords, Scrabble, and Spelling Bees. But you'll also find loads of information about other popular games and puzzles, like Hangman, Boggle, and Balderdash. So sit back and start browsing the pages of Word-Buff.com, where you can make full use of hundreds of free tips, lists, and other cool resources put together by people just like you ... who play word games to win." (Subject(s): Scrabble (Game) & Word Games)
Yahoo! Education: "Whether you're a student, a parent, or just plain curious, Yahoo! Education offers a handy selection of searchable reference materials to help you find the information you need. Look up the definition of a word in the Dictionary, find its synonym in the Thesaurus, or translate it into Spanish. Search for facts and information in the Encyclopedia, find country and regional maps and flags in the World Factbook, and much more." (Subject(s): Homework & Reference--General)
YourDictionary: "YourDictionary is a free online dictionary and much more. The free dictionary search gives you definitions, thesaurus entries, spelling, pronunciation, and etymology results for your word. Alternatively, you can browse the English dictionary alphabetically or by related terms to find meanings and synonyms. In addition, YourDictionary provides resources to help you find the best dictionary and translation sites for French, Spanish, Italian, German and hundreds of other languages. Need a specialized dictionary, thesaurus or glossary? YourDictionary can help you find the best customized resources including a pharmaceutical and medical dictionary list, computer and science glossaries and a wide collection of industry specific terms. These extensive references are useful for students trying to further their education and learn the vocabulary of a field of study as well as for seasoned professionals." (Subject(s): English Language--Dictionaries)

THE (VERY) LAST WORD: Consumer Expenditure Survey

"The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) program consists of two surveys, the quarterly Interview Survey and the Diary Survey, that provide information on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics. The survey data are collected for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau. The most recent data tables are for 2007, and were made available on November 26, 2008. See Featured CE Tables and Economic News Releases sections on the CE home page for current data tables and news release." (Subject(s): Consumers--Statistics)

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