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USEFUL LINKS FOR WRITERS All Music Guide - allmusic.com "The world's largest and most comprehensive entertainment information database for music, videos, DVD's and video games, All Media Guide offers expert reviews, biographies, ratings, images, titles, credits, and thousands of descriptive categories." ----------------- ArtLex - www.artlex.com MOMA - http://www.moma.org/ National Museum of Women in the Arts - www.nmwa.org Copyright Durations - www.authorslawyer.com/c-term.shtml Manuscript Submission Format The best presentation of a fiction manuscript format you're likely to see. The article itself is wriiten as if it were a manuscript, so you can see all the formatting points in use instead of just being told what they are. Nice approach to learning the standard formatting that satisfies even the most anal-retentive editors. Of course, you'll still have to agonize over whether your house editors want a paper clip holding it together or not, and that's for them to know and you to find out. Sadistic bastards! Same thing for a novel submission. Read the short story format above first, because this page assumes you have the information given there. The essential differences are the separate title page, inclusion of a dedication page, et cetera. ----------------- Scammers and Other Bottom-feeders - www.writerbeware.com Writer's Block - leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/block.html ----------------- BigBook - www.bigbook.com Law Schools and Legal Associations - www.washlaw.edu Switchboard - http://www.switchboard.com/ ----------------- Film Festivals Server - filmfestivals.com/index.html A site dedicated to covering the goings-on at hundreds of film festivals worldwide. It also provides film reviews and industry news. -----------------Greatest Films - www.filmsite.org According to the site, since 1996, it has been an outstanding, all-around resource with reviews of hundreds of classic Hollywood and other American films, historical and genre information, and lists including 100 Greatest Films and 200 Greatest Films, Greatest Moments and Scenes, and a Great Lines of Movie Dialogue Quiz. That pretty much sums it up. -----------------Inside Film Magazine Online - http://www.insidefilm.com/ This site focuses primarily on news related to film festivals, though it does have a few articles relating to entertainment news in general and also a section with a decent amount of information on the screenwriting profession. -----------------The Internet Movie Database - http://www.imdb.com/ Known primarily as IMDB, this site is the one stop shop for credit information. Want to know what Gillian Anderson has done outside of X-Files? IMDB. Want to know who was the Costume Designer for Murphy Brown? IMDB. Nuff said. -----------------LittleGoldenGuy.com - http://www.littlegoldenguy.com/ A completely searchable database that chronicles the entire history of the Academy Awards. Searches can be as detailed as determining which studio has the most nominations for Best Song between 1932 and 1944. A smorgasbord of Oscar info. -----------------TV Guide Online's Movie Guide - www.tvguide.com/movies This site lists cast, credits and reviews for more than 40,000 movies, plus filmographies for thousands of actors and other filmmakers. All this and recent box office reports, reviews and articles. -----------------TV Party - www.tvparty.com A nostalgic tribute to the great and not-so-great TV shows, commercials and promotions of yesteryear. Not only does this site document the history of television with an almost religious admiration, it also allows visitors to view clips that are sure to bring back memories of "the good ol' days." Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress - bioguide.congress.gov A searchable database of biographies for most U.S. governmental officials in the House, Senate and Oval Office from 1774-present. Information can be accessed either by representative's name, state represented or office held. Results are in alphabetical rather than the more informative chronological order. Oddly enough some recent officials are not included (e.g. Ronald Reagan, William Jefferson Clinton) while others are (e.g. George Bush). -----------------The British Monarchy - http://www.royal.gov.uk/ This site is the official website of the British Monarchy. It includes press releases, a history of the monarchy as well as images of the various palaces, the Royal Family and the Royal Collection of art. Also included is a FAQ of sorts. -----------------The CIA - www.cia.gov A general breakdown of the CIA, press releases, declassified documents, CIA administrators and how the agency operates. -----------------CIA World Factbook - www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html Every year the CIA publishes a World Factbook which details everything you could possibly want to know about any country worldwide. From population to religion to climate, this is the ultimate location research tool. -----------------Congressional Email Directory - www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html Lists email addresses for all U.S. Representatives and Senators who are hooked into the good ol' world wide web. Search for your rep by name or hunt by state. -----------------DefenseLINK - http://www.defenselink.mil/ This official website for the U.S. Department of Defense allows you to quickly access press releases, publications, news and FAQ's relating to the DOD and its branches. Also links to the individual armed force branches for a more specific research option. -----------------The Embassy Web - http://www.embpage.org/ The Embassy Web turns its spotlight onto web sites maintained by foreign representations all over the world. To locate a specific embassy's homepage, you must select the country TO which the party is an ambassador, followed by the country FROM which the ambassador has been sent. A very interesting research device, EmbassyWeb is a great tool for political and ethnic research. -----------------FedStats - http://www.fedstats.gov/ According to the site, "More than 70 agencies in the United States Federal Government produce statistics of interest to the public. The Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy maintains this site to provide easy access to the full range of statistics and information produced by these agencies for public use." That about sums it up. -----------------FedWorld Information Network - http://www.fedworld.gov/ A U.S. Department of Commerce production, the FedWorld Information Network is a great one-stop shop for federal information from many agencies and departments of the U.S. government. -----------------National First Ladies Library - www.firstladies.org Just ask Hillary! According to our current First Lady, this site is "devoted to the lives and legacies of America's First Ladies." Turns out we've had exactly as many First Ladies as we've had Presidents. Odd coincidence, don't you think? -----------------The U.S. Patent Office - http://www.uspto.gov/ Everything you could want to know about patents and trademarks in the U.S. -----------------Rulers - www.rulers.org From the site: "This site contains lists of heads of state and heads of government (and, in certain cases, de facto leaders not occupying either of those formal positions) of all countries and territories, going back to about 1800. Also included are the subdivisions of some countries (the links are at the bottom of the respective country entries), as well as some international organizations. Recent foreign ministers of all countries are listed separately." -----------------U.S. House Of Representatives - www.house.gov A comprehensive look into the workings of the U.S. House of Representatives. It contains information on job openings, House sub-committees, recent news, roll call vote tallies, etc. You can also contact your local rep from within the site. -----------------U.S. Senate Home Page - http://www.senate.gov/ Just like the aforementioned House of Representatives Home Page, yet with the focus shifted a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue. -----------------The White House - www.whitehouse.gov/index.html Current White House actions, a history of the Oval Office and biographies and contact information for the heads of the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government, the White House home page is the destination of choice for those researching the United States government's cornerstone. Grammar and Style There is no shortage of people on the web who promote themselves as grammar and style experts, and there is, consequently, a great deal of wrong information out there. If you intend your work to eventually see an editor's desk, then for Pete's sake, don't take your grammar and construction questions to Joe's Grammar and Barber College. Here are three highly repected sites with proven expertise you can rely on. ----------------- Commnet - http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/ The best grammar and style manual on the web, from Capital Community College. It presents an alphabetized listing of about 400 elements, so if you're in doubt about the correct use of single quotes, just click on Quotation Marks for everything you ever wanted to know about those pesky single quote marks. A truly remarkable web resource for the "nuts and bolts" of writing. -----------------Jack Lynch's Style Guide - http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/ Entries in Dr. Lynch's guide are alphabetically arranged and headed with the words one might use if doing a keyword search at a search engine. For example, if you want to know when to use "a" or "an," just click on the A page and look for the heading A or An. Continually revised and updated. -----------------The Grammar Curmudgeon - http://www.grammarmudge.cityslide.com/page/page/1725233.htm Lots of authoritative help presented in a distinctly non-stuffy way. I particularly recommend that you check the Style Guide link on the left side for the most troublesome things, but the pages for usage FAQs, common mistakes, and other site offerings are terrific, too. There's even a discussion board frequented by a sort of roundtable of fellow grammarians where you can submit a specific question you don't see an answer for. This site, with its aggregate arsenal of knowledge, has gained a certain reputation as a settler of bets concerning the language. The American Civil War Homepage -sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war The American Civil War Homepage gathers together in one place hypertext links to the most useful identified electronic files about the American Civil War (1861-1865). The page opens a gateway to the Internet's multi-formatted resources about what is arguably the seminal event in American history. All that and realistic battle sound effects! -----------------Early America Archives - earlyamerica.com The Archive's "main focus is primary source material from 18th Century America -- all displayed digitally. A unique array of original newspapers, maps and writings come to life on your screen just as they appeared to our forebears more than 200 years ago." It is an excellent site that includes access to email discussion groups and movies of famous moments in early American history. -----------------History Buff's Homepage - historybuff.com This site is devoted to press coverage of events in American history. It includes an extensive, searchable library with categories such as Civil War, Baseball, Engravings, Journalism Hoaxes, Old West, Figures and more. The Presidential Library includes the inaugural addresses of all U.S. presidents. This site is a great starting point when researching any subject. -----------------Historynet - www.thehistorynet.com This has to be one of the best history sites on the net. It covers all of the important topics in American history as well as a great many world events. It details eyewitness accounts, interviews as well as solidly research articles, pictures and more. The only shortcoming is the limited number of resources per event. -----------------Inaugural Addresses - www.bartleby.com/124/ From Washington to George W. Bush, Bartleby brings you word-for-word documentation of each and every inaugural address in U.S. history. -----------------Medal of Honor Citations - www.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm All of the recipients of the U.S. Medal of Honor. These entries include a detailing of the actions for which the soldier has been honored and also offers supplemental information, such as the history of the medal, some statistics related to the citations as well as a couple sections calling attention to recipients from certain minorities. -----------------National Archives and Records Administration - www.nara.gov "Among the treasures that await you here are the cornerstone documents of our government -- the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights but the National Archives is more than famous documents. We enable people to inspect for themselves the record of what government has done. We enable officials and agencies to review their actions, and we help citizens hold them accountable for those actions." Another quality internal summary. American Bar Association - www.abanet.org The website for the American Bar Association contains legal news, ABA news and membership information, as well as information on law events and the law community. -----------------California Legal Codes - www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html This site includes a search engine for finding specific legislation of the State of California. It is presented in a user-friendly interface with quick access to the full text for any particular state legislative code. -----------------Crime Scene Investigations - www.crime-scene-investigator.net/csi-collection.html If you've ever tried to get some information about this on the net, you already know that what you get is either some nonspecific stuff that doesn't do you any good, or a link to something having to do with the TV show, where everything is about half-and-half between partially accurate and totally made-up. Thought there was no such thing as a useful CSI site? Au contraire, mon frere. Here's an actually helpful site that goes into some detail about the things that crime scene forensics people do. None of this useless general "The crime scene investigator then carefully collects and packages the evidence" bullshit. This site tells you the specific things they concentrate on and look for, and how these things are documented and/or collected. There are lots of individual articles on topics such as blood evidence, tire tracks, dead body trace evidence collections and such, but for a nice basic walk-through to get you started, click on the Searching and Examining a Major Case Crime Scene link. Most of the articles are written by working or retired law enforcement people who do these things for a living, so the information should be fairly accurate for your use. -----------------Enforcement Agency Websites State Police for the 50 States - http://www.statetroopersdirectory.com/#Menu ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) - www.atf.gov FBI - www.fbi.gov DEA - www.usdoj.gov/dea SECRET SERVICE - www.ustreas.gov/usss U.S. MARSHALS - www.usdoj.gov/marshals U.S. BORDER PATROL - www.cbp.gov TEXAS RANGERS - www.texasranger.org/today/rangerstoday.htm MAJOR METRO POLICE DEPARTMENTS
INTERNATIONAL ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE - www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/index_e.htm FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION - http://www.ambafrance-us.org/atoz/legion/index.asp INTERPOL- www.interpol.com -----------------Famous Murders - www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/ Stuck for homicidal inspiration in your story? If you think you need, well, professional help, here's plenty. From gangsters like Dillinger and Floyd to serial killers, this site run by CourtTV is a comprehensive course in high-profile murder cases, with details. Be advised; some of those details are grim. -----------------The FBI - http://www.fbi.gov/ The FBI's homepage includes a wealth of information including a link to their Top 10 Most Wanted List, short summaries of some major investigations, FAQ's, etc. It is informative for understanding the structure of the Bureau as well as for gathering information on some fairly interesting criminals and crimes that have occurred in recent history. -----------------Gang Land - www.ganglandnews.com A Brooklyn-based reporter who specializes in the Mob has organized this site which sheds light on the ongoing saga of organized crime in America. At times humorous, the information is always insightful. -----------------Interrogation Techniques - http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/index.cfm?journal=pspi&content=pspi/5_2 Interrogation with an eye toward confession. Includes use of the famous--and sometimes controversial--Reid Technique, taught to law enforcement and security personnel worldwide. NOTE: most of the articles here are PDF files; if you have an older computer, you probably already know they might be be slow to load. -----------------Murder Info - benbest.com/lifeext/murder.html Includes things like most dangerous and safest places, most popular motives, weapons most used, demographics, et cetera. Lots of information. By the way, if you live in Honolulu, you're in the U.S's least likely place to die by getting whacked. -----------------Private Eyes - Infoguys - infoguys.com The ins-and-outs of life as a private investigator. -----------------Supreme Court Decisions - Internet Public Library - ipl.org An immense archive of information hosted at Drexel University and supported by a larger consortium of educational entities. Definitely worth a look for any researcher. -----------------Library of Congress WWW HomePage - marvel.loc.gov This main page directs visitors to not only the Library of Congress' search option for finding catalogued works, but also a connection to THOMAS and the U.S. Copyright Office. There are also other links that may be of interest to some users. -----------------Libweb - sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb Essentially, this is a tool dedicated to locating websites for libraries worldwide. By entering a location, Libweb will locate the library in that area and direct you to their website. Aesop's Fables - www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/aesop/ "This online collection of Aesop's Fables includes a total of 655+ Fables indexed in table format with morals listed. Included are Real Audio narrations, Classic Images, Random Images, Random Fables, Search Engine, Message Forum and much more on the way. Recently added are 127 Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen with 209 Grimms Fairy Tales coming soon along with much more mythology and stories for your reading pleasure." Fun for the whole family. It's Amazon. They sell books, software, etc. Perhaps you've heard of them? -----------------On-line Literature Library - http://www.literature.org/ This site contains a great collection of writings for online perusal from the major players of literature and thought (e.g. Charles Darwin, Edgar Allen Poe and more). -----------------The Online Medieval and Classical Library - sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL The Online Medieval and Classical Library (OMACL) is a collection of some of the most important literary works of Classical and Medieval civilization." A great resource for online reading, the only downside is the number of available volumes. -----------------Shakespeare - the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare This site claims to be "the Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare." It houses all the plays in the best layout I've seen anywhere on the net. No poems here, though. -----------------Sherlockian Holmepage - http://www.sherlockian.net/ This site is dedicated to all things Sherlockian and is an essential starting point for, if not the end all of, any research on this incredibly popular fictional creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. DISEASES TO INFLICT ON YOUR CHARACTERS www.mic.ki.se/Diseases/alphalist.htmlLots of diseases, mundane and exotic, listed alphabetically, for you to use in your stories to wreak whatever clinical misfortune you desire on your characters. Cautionary Note: if you're neurotic or hypochondriac, stay away. You will come away from this site with many new symptoms. www.cdc.gov/health/diseases.htm CDC site. Another good source of maladies. www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/index.htm As if existing diseases aren't enough, this separate CDC page details new, emerging perils--such as West Nile--that threaten us on the horizon. Why give your protagonist's brother some ordinary fatal illness when he can have a new, authentic Disease From Hell? -----------------Autopsy www.pathguy.com/autopsy.htmA step-by-step walkthrough of a typical autopsy procedure by Ed Friedlander, licensed Pathologist. His main site includes other medical information. There's also some religious philosophy sprinkled around elsewhere at the site. Beats me; some kind of zen pathologist, maybe. web2.iadfw.net/uthman/Autop.htmlUnlike the site above, there are no cute cartoon drawings here. This is a more graphic description of the autopsy process, full of what things look like and what things smell like, full of blood on the floor and walls. Wait at least an hour after eating before going swimming or reading this. -----------------DNA - www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/forensics.shtml A nice intro to DNA procedures and applications. Includes some cool examples of real identifications made through DNA testing. In effect, this is a portal site, because at the bottom of the page is a shitload of links to other sites with more info than you want. Personally, I found out everything I wanted to know right here, but in case you need more, there's plenty of more at these other locations. News Sources BBC News - http://news.bbc.co.uk/ -----------------Chicago Tribune - http://www.chicago.tribune.com/ -----------------CNN Interactive - http://www.cnn.com/ -----------------Drudge Report - http://www.drudgereport.com/ -----------------Entertainment Weekly - http://www.ew.com/ew/ -----------------The Hollywood Reporter - http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ -----------------L.A. Weekly - http://www.laweekly.com/ -----------------London Times - http://www.the-times.co.uk/ -----------------Los Angeles Times - http://www.latimes.com/ -----------------Mother Jones - http://www.mojones.com/ -----------------MSNBC - http://www.msnbc.com/ -----------------New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/ -----------------News Central - http://www.all-links.com/newscentral/ -----------------PBS NewsHour Online - http://www.pbs.org/newshour -----------------San Jose Mercury News - http://www.sjmercury.com/ -----------------Television News Archive (Vanderbilt University) - http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/ -----------------USA Today - http://www.usatoday.com/ -----------------Variety - http://www.variety.com/ -----------------The Village Voice - http://www.villagevoice.com/ -----------------Wall Street Journal -http://www.wsj.com/ Acronym and Abbreviation List - http://www.ucc.ie/info/net/acronyms/ Need an acronym? Enter a keyword and see what acronyms contain that word. Have an acronym? Enter it and find out what it represents. Less than 18,000 acronyms catalogued. -----------------Acronym Finder - http://www.AcronymFinder.com/ "Over 161,000 definitions for acronyms, abbreviations and initialisms about all subjects, including information technology, telecommunications, military, government, and much more." -----------------Allexperts.com - http://www.allexperts.com/ Self-proclaimed experts answer your questions in any category. Response time is typically less than 24 hours, and the answers are typically sufficient to satisfy your curiosity. -----------------American Secular Holidays Calendar - http://www.smart.net/~mmontes/ushols.html Enter a year and the holiday generator will inform you of the specific dates of each secular holiday that falls in that year and tell you on which day of the week they fall. In addition, the site provides a wealth of probably unnecessary information about federal holiday legislation and the algorithm that was used to make this holiday generator possible. -----------------Ariga - http://www.ariga.com/yiddish.htm Shlemiel, Shlimazel. Thanks to Ariga, the online glossary of popular Yiddish phrases, you can gain valuable insight into America's favorite Milwaukee girls. -----------------Ask Jeeves - http://www.ask.com/ Ask Jeeves is a powerful search engine that functions based on complete questions being input into the system rather than performing a simple keyword search. For fun, input "Who's on first" or "What is the meaning of life" or if you're feeling really frisky you should try "What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" -----------------Babel Fish Translator - http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn Named after the ficticious species from Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which, when implanted directly into the users ear, would automatically translate any incoming speech into the language of the recipient, this page will translate any entered text into an impressive number of languages. This is an invaluable tool for the writer who wishes to include foreign language dialogue into a script despite lacking the necessary lingual knowledge. -----------------Bartlett's Familiar Quotations - http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/bartlett/ A collection of passages, phrases, and proverbs traced to their sources in Ancient and Modern Literature" that claims to have catalogued over 9,000 selections. -----------------Behind The Name - http://www.behindthename.com/ This site explores and explains the etymology of first names and the history and strategy behind etymology. It's just a shame that the meaning and origin of the word "etymology" is unexplored. Ok, fine, we'll translate. Enter a first name, this site tells you what it means and from what language it was derived. -----------------Bible Gateway - http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible "The Bible Gateway is a tool for reading scripture online. Additionally, it provides advanced searching capabilities, allowing readers to find particular passages in scripture, based on keywords." You can search for a verse, phrase or word and have it returned in one of many available translations. And just for the record, yes, Tagalog is a supported language. -----------------Biographical Dictionary - http://www.s9.com/biography/ "This dictionary covers more than 28,000 notable men and women who have shaped our world from ancient times to the present day. The dictionary can be searched by birth years, death years, positions held, professions, literary and artistic works, achievements and other keywords." -----------------Calendars Through The Ages - http://www.webexhibits.com/calendars/index.html "Explore the fascinating history of the human endeavor to organize our lives in accordance with the sun and stars." -----------------CIA 2000 World Factbook - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html Every year the CIA publishes a World Factbook which details everything you could possibly want to know about any country worldwide. From population to religion to climate, this is the ultimate location research tool. -----------------Common Errors in English - http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/index.html This site is "concerned", with [the most common] deviations from the standard use of English as judged by sophisticated users such as professional writers, editors, teachers, and literate executives and personnel officers. The aim of this site is to help you avoid low grades, lost employment opportunities, lost business and titters of amusement at the way you write or speak." -----------------Compendium of Common Knowledge: 1558-1603 - http://ren.dm.net/compendium/home.html According to the author, this is history for the MTV generation. These aren't essays, they are fact bites." You gotta love the Elizabethan era MTV-style. -----------------Country Studies - http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html#toc "The Country Studies Series presents a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world and examines the interrelationships of those systems and the ways they are shaped by cultural factors." -----------------Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships - http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/ "DANFS is the foremost reference regarding US naval vessels. Published in nine volumes (from 1959 to 1991), it gives histories for virtually every US naval vessel. To make DANFS accessible to a larger number of people, [they] are working to put all DANFS ship histories online through this site. Currently the online collection includes over 7000 ship histories, and more are being added. These files are faithfully transcribed from DANFS, without updating or corrections." -----------------eHow - http://www.ehow.com/ Want to know how to do something? Just ask eHow. How do I get a divorce? How do I learn to hula hoop? Just ask and eHow will provide a step-by-step instruction for accomplishing the requested task well. -----------------The 50 States of the United States - http://www.50states.com/ Everything you've ever wanted to know about the states, their mottoes, land, camping facilities, capitals, etc. In addition, you can find fun facts and gain access to important State Tax forms. -----------------Fuller Up, The Dead Musician Directory - http://elvispelvis.com/fullerup.htm Writing a biopic? Have a sick fascination with the macabre? Tired of playing your 'N Sync record over and over and over? If so, the Fuller Up page is for you. A catalog of "dead musicians and how they got that way." -----------------Geography at About.com - http://geography.about.com/ A wealth of information, quizzes and games related to the topic of geography. -----------------Gun Data - http://www.world.guns.ru/ NOTE: this site, like many others on this list, has advertisers. The difference here is that some of these advertisers--many of them U.S. companies--are gun dealers selling just about every kind of firearm and other weaponry they can legally vend (one advertiser I checked even sells automatic weapons to those who meet the proper licensing and other legal requirements). If you have strong feelings about purveyors of instruments of violence, be advised that you'll encounter same if you visit this site. This Russian website houses a huge amount of information about civilian and military handguns, shotguns, and military long guns, complete with specifications, operating characteristics, history, multiple nice photos of the weapon, etc. Just so you know, there doesn't seem to be a section for strictly civilian rifles. Hickok's Sports History - http://www.hickoksports.com/history.shtml History, trivia, more history, more trivia, some fun articles, is what makes Hickok's Sports History a great stop on your web journey. No, the hackeysack section isn't completed yet, but hey, he's workin' on it, so cut him some slack. -----------------Holidays on the Net - http://www.holidays.net/page2.htm Pick a holiday and you're instantly connected to the history behind the holiday as well as all of the associated customs, foods and traditions that relate to it. -----------------How Stuff Works - http://www.howstuffworks.com/ "Have you ever wondered how the engine in your car works or what makes the inside of your refrigerator cold? Then How Stuff Works is the place for you!" -----------------The Human-Languages Page - http://www.june29.com/HLP/ "The Human-Languages Page is a comprehensive catalog of language-related Internet resources. The more than 1900 links in the HLP database have been hand-reviewed to bring you the best language links the Web has to offer. Whether you're looking for online language lessons, translating dictionaries, native literature, translation services, software, language schools, or just a little information on a language you've heard about, the HLP probably has something to suit your needs." -----------------Inflation Calculator - http://www.westegg.com/inflation "The [Inflation Calculator] adjusts any given amount of money for inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index, from 1800 to 1999." Enter a dollar amount and the starting and ending years and like magic the calculator will adjust for inflation. -----------------Information Please - http://www.infoplease.com/ Their slogan, "all the knowledge you need," isn't far from the truth. With an atlas, almanacs, dictionary and encyclopedia, Information Please is a one stop information source. There are also links to breaking news, horoscopes, crossword puzzles, word games and more. -----------------Infonation - http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/infonation/e_infonation.htm "InfoNation is an easy-to-use, two-step database that allows you to view and compare the most up-to-date statistical data for the Member States of the United Nations." -----------------International Atlas - http://www.atlapedia.com/ "Atlapedia Online contains full color physical and political maps as well as key facts and statistics on countries of the world." -----------------Internet Hockey Database - http://www.hockeydb.com/ "The standings and player statistics for nearly every professional hockey player to play -- ever! You will find information for almost all professional leagues that iced a team -- not just the NHL. And there is a tremendous amount of amateur stats listed as well." Not only that, but the IHD also has a lot of information about hockey and statistics and hockey statistics.and other hockey things. -----------------Journalist's Guide for Finding Data on the Internet - http://nilesonline.com/data/ Let's face it. Some of us aren't surfing around the net at blazing speed easily locating each and every piece of information we need. This site is set up to save us from our own incompetence. Pick a topic and learn where to easily find the best information on the subject. -----------------Legends - http://www.legends.dm.net/ "This is Legends, a personal journey through the worlds of Robin Hood, King Arthur, D'Artagnan, and other swashbuckling characters of balladry, fiction, and film, from the shores of Avalon to the dungeons of Zenda." -----------------MapQuest - http://www.mapquest.com/ A great tool for locating directions between any two points. The resulting directions are available in a multitude of formats including map, text only and, our personal favorite, door-to-door directions with any Denny's within a five mile radius of your route highlighted. -----------------Merriam-Webster On-line - http://www.m-w.com/ It's the Webster Dictionary and Webster Thesaurus online, also has bonus features such as "Word of the Day." -----------------My Virtual Reference Desk - http://www.refdesk.com/ Atomic clock, facts of the day, reference site of the day, news headlines, etc. -----------------The Nobel Prize Internet Archive - http://www.almaz.com/nobel/ "Click on any Nobel category, (literature, physics, chemistry, peace, economics, or physiology & medicine) to see an annotated, hyperlinked list of all Nobel laureates in that category." -----------------NYNY - http://home.eznet.net/~dminor/NYNY.html Search by year (or decade) for a chronological listing of major events in New York City history. -----------------OneLook Dictionaries - http://www.onelook.com/ A search engine of definitions, the OneLook interface quickly scans through over 600 online dictionaries to find the word you're investigating and then returns a report of available definitions and their online location. -----------------ParkMaps.com - http://www.parkmaps.com/ ParkMaps is a great resource for locating and learning about the thousands of parks worldwide. In addition, the site will direct you to the best places for camping, fishing, boating or hiking. And we're not talking about simply state parks, but also city parks, county parks, amusement parks, etc. It's truly Central Park, er, Park Central. -----------------Poet's Rhyming Software - http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/audio/rhyme.htm Yeah, I know, this doesn't have anything to do with mystery writing, and I don't even like poetry, but I won a bet with this program, so I'm posting this to cover my bets in case there really is such a thing as karma. I was challenged as a non-poetry type to write an actual iambic pentamter poem. I said, "No problem." After she left, I looked up iambic pentamter to see what it was, then cheated with this program to make it rhyme. For info, this program actually works pretty well; you tell it how many syllables to rhyme and it lists all its database words that match (it has about 100K words). So here you go, snooty-falooty poetry types. I won the bet, and poetry gets a mention at my joint. We're even now, karma-wise. -----------------The Pulitzer Prizes - http://www.pulitzer.org/ This site is Pulitzer-central. It has an archive of past winners and their work, as well as a history of the prize and forms and guidelines for anyone who wants to throw their hat in the Pulitzer ring, hoping to be recognized this year for their outstanding achievements. -----------------Reference Desk - http://www.washoe.lib.nv.us/xrefer.html This site acts as an online library reference desk, quickly directing you to information on various general subjects. The information is typically housed on other sites, so this is more of a portal than an information source, but it is a fast and effective means of beginning a research task. -----------------Resources for Writers - http://www.bloorstreet.com/300block/3author.htm -----------------Rhyming Dictionary - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dougb/rhyme.html Now this is fun, you enter a word and ask the search engine to find a list of words that rhyme with it. Not only will the result list acceptable rhymes, but it will also direct you to sections of classic literature that contain that word or phrase. And for the record, orange is officially without a rhyme, though it does occur several times in Shakespeare's writings. -----------------SYMBOLS.com - http://www.SYMBOLS.com/ "SYMBOLS.com contains more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. In 1,600 articles their histories, uses, and meanings are thoroughly discussed. The signs range from ideograms carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men, to hobo signs and subway graffiti." This is an incredibly interesting resource with one major flaw. It is quite difficult to set up a search engine whereby someone can input a symbol as the search string. SYMBOLS.com has set this up as effectively as possible, but the interface is still less-than ideal. -----------------The Slot - http://www.theslot.com/ This site is dedicated to the correct usage of words, phrases and grammar in the English language. Written with a particularly dry wit, the information contained is entertaining and invaluable if you're trying to rectify the age old issue of "lay" vs. "lie" or "that" vs. "which". -----------------Time Zones: The Time Anywhere- www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/full.html Gives you the current time in any city worldwide. If you click on a particular city on the list, you get the local and Zulu time, sunrise and sunset, phone area code, and other handy things. -----------------Universal Currency Converter - http://www.xe.net/currency/ Here's the interface: "I want to convert THIS AMOUNT of THIS TYPE OF CURRENCY into THIS TYPE OF CURRENCY." It doesn't get any easier. -----------------U.S. Census Bureau - http://www.census.gov/ Statistics, information, essays and projections on the various data collected and maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau. -----------------White Supremacy www.aryan-nations.org/index-2.htm www.nsm88.org Witchcraft In Salem Village - http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/ "This site introduces the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and is designed to provide accurate general information about these events, as well as information on other aspects of the history of Danvers (formerly Salem Village), Massachusetts." What makes this site so valuable is its collection of Salem-related, complete, original documents from the late 1600's. -----------------WordNet - http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/ "WordNet® is an on-line lexical reference system whose design is inspired by current psycholinguistic theories of human lexical memory. English nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are organized into synonym sets, each representing one underlying lexical concept. Different relations link the synonym sets." If you can understand that summary, you probably don't need this site. -----------------World Wide Words - http://www.quinion.com/words/ "World Wide Words is devoted to the English language - its history, quirks, curiosities and evolution. The Words site is organised into sections, each with its own index to help you find your way about." -----------------Your Dictionary.com - http://www.yourdictionary.com/ A great collection of online dictionaries from your standard word dictionary to language dictionaries and industry specific dictionaries (law, medical, etc.) Search Engines All in One Search Page - http://www.allonesearch.com/ Over 500 of the Internet's best search engines, databases, indexes, and directories catalogued in a single site. Each engine is listed separately, so you'll have to decide which is best for you, but the available engines are numerous so you're bound to find one that fits your particular need. -----------------Alta Vista - http://www.altavista.com/ "The world's fastest, most comprehensive search service available in 25 languages with 8 distinct search dimensions." Both compact and detailed searches available, plus links to various other Alta Vista services and message board communities. -----------------Dogpile - http://www.dogpile.com/ From the Go2Net family that brings you Metacrawler, Dogpile similarly searches several major search engines at once, while keeping the resulting hits separately categorized according to the referring search engine. Just as comprehensive as Metacrawler, but better organized to help you find a search engine that fits your individual needs. -----------------EuroSeek - http://www.euroseek.com/ This site is structured departmentally much like Yahoo, with the advantage here being that you can search in numerous European languages and within specific European regions. It also contains various European news items and links to areas that concern the European culture. -----------------Excite - http://www.excite.com/ Less a search engine than it is a portal site, Excite offers news, sports, weather, horoscopes, etc. in addition to its search function. Its main advantage is that it allows you to search for photos, news, audio/visual information as well as the standard meta-tag search function. -----------------Google - http://google.com -----------------Lycos - http://www.lycos.com/ -----------------WebCrawler - http://webcrawler.com/ -----------------Yahoo! - http://www.yahoo.com/ Billion Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters (1980-1998) - http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/reports/billionz.html This site houses information on the 44 weather-related disasters that caused over a billion dollars in damage. They are presented in a tight, efficient format with specific statistics and maps for each. -----------------Biotechnology Information Center - http://www.nal.usda.gov/bic/ This site provides "access to selected sources, services and publications covering many aspects of agricultural biotechnology." -----------------CSICOP - http://www.csicop.org/ "CSICOP encourages the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminates factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community and the public." -----------------EurekAlert - http://www.eurekalert.org/ "EurekAlert! is a centralized World Wide Web site offering free online access to the latest research findings in science, medicine, technology, and social sciences." -----------------Forensics Firearm Identification - http://www.firearmsID.com/ This site goes into great depths to explain the forensic science involved in determining whether a bullet was fired from a particular gun. This is a great source of information for the writer who lacks the scientific know-how to articulate such a process as part of a crime scene. -----------------The Galileo Project - http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/ "The Galileo Project is a hypertext source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the science of his time." -----------------How Things Work - http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/HTW// This site is different from the aforementioned "How Stuff Works" elsewhere in this list in that it explains the physical laws that allow certain things to happen rather than the mechanical makeup of "stuff." Both are great resources, the first being more practical, while this one being significantly more in depth and interesting, yet about things that the common person rarely questions. -----------------NASA Kennedy Space Center - http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/ Kennedy Space Center's website is filled with information about NASA and the United States space program, as well as the history and day-to-day work of the KSC itself. You can find a schedule of upcoming shuttle launches, news, a launch simulation and more. -----------------PhysLINK - http://www.physlink.com/ Physics and astronomy are the focus of this site, dedicated to providing resources and information on these two divisions of science. You can quickly access information on new theories, awards, expert advice, history of the fields, etc. -----------------PLANTS - http://plants.usda.gov/plants/ Maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this site is plants, plants, plants, and even features the incredibly popular "Plant of the Week." It's all rather fetish-y if you ask me, but hey, if botany is your thing, more power to you. US Army Survival Field Manual FM 21-76 If your characters live through a plane crash in the Alaskan mountains, a shipwreck in the tropics, or a car wreck on a remote Mexican desert highway, well, they're going to need some way to stay alive until they reach civilization or are rescued, aren't they? Assuming you can write in some way for one of them to know the information in this manual, here's everything you need for a realistic survival process in a variety of environments, including the post-apocalyptic landscape following The Big One. Weather & Travel CNN - Weather Main Page - http://www.cnn.com/WEATHER/index.html#note Weather maps, allergy reports, storm center and weather news are just a few of the features of the CNN Weather page. -----------------MapQuest - http://www.mapquest.com/ A great tool for locating directions between any two points. The resulting directions are available in a multitude of formats including map, text only and, our personal favorite, door-to-door directions with any Denny's within a five mile radius of your route highlighted. -----------------ParkMaps.com - http://www.parkmaps.com/ -----------------WeatherNet - http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/ "UM Weather, the Internet's premier source of weather information, [provides] access to thousands of forecasts, images, and the Net's largest collection of weather links. UM Weather is the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of weather data on the Web." |
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