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Face Blindness
If you never forget a face, you can't imagine what life is like for Cecilia Burman, who suffers from prosopagnosia, a condition that makes her unable to recognize the human face. Face Blindness was created by Cecilia to help you understand.
Those who are face-blind see just fine - it's not about vision - but their brains can't record and retrieve images of the human face because the brain center responsible for face recognition is out of whack. Using rocks to illustrate the condition and guide visitors, Cecilia explains how those with face blindness use clothing, voices and context to identify friends, how the malfunction occurs and how she gets along without the cues the rest of us take for granted.
prosopagnosia.com
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Learn Spanish
Donde esta la clase? It's right there in your computer at Learn Spanish, an extensive and mostly free collection of learning tools, from simple pronunciation tutorials to verb and vocabulary drills. Determined students can sign up for premium services that give access to hundreds more quizzes, tests and other tools.
studyspanish.com
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The On-Line Books Page
The Internet has a way of snatching and remaking tasks performed by other media like TV and CD players … now it's going after books. While reading off a monitor can never replace curling up with a bundle of paper bound together by thread and glue, a quick glance at the 15,000 titles available at The Online Books Page has its own allure.
With subjects from religion to science, philosophy to art, all titles are free on the Internet. The site's creator, a digital library planner and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, also offers links to directories and archives of other online texts, special exhibits like "banned books," and other info to support the growth of online books.
onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu
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Lifeguarding
How could one possibly learn to jump in the ocean and save drowning people by using a computer? If it is possible, the rescue will happen here at Lifeguarding, an online training course for professional lifeguards. No sunscreen required.
Created with the National Safety Council, the site uses dramatic simulations to test the user's ability to identify and respond to life-threatening scenarios in and out of water, from unconscious floating to spinal injuries. Not for the wannabe lifeguard, this sophisticated site evaluates the user's choice of techniques like the Duck Pluck and Vise Grip and goes on to test other professional requirements, like passing an internal audit and guest relations.
chiave.com
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Ode to a Turntable
The "coolest of the cool" among lost-and-found cultural objects, turntables have made a comeback recently, and musicologists almost drool over the sound of a needle sliding around a vinyl disk. At Ode to a Turntable, Technics has created a memorial to the cherished deck as part of its 30th anniversary celebration. You need Shockwave and Flash 5 for full enjoyment, but it's well worth it to tour this labor of love from the techies who created the site. It's also a soft advertisement for the company's history in audio production, but you figure they deserve the credit once you cruise through Legacy, an audiovisual history of 30 years of turntable production and The Deck Story, taking visitors right down inside the engineering.
technics1210.com
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Head Trip
At The Secret Life of the Brain, the fascinating organ that controls your universe is explained, launching a five-part PBS series premiering in winter 2002. Get a head-start here with dynamic visuals and compelling human stories that even those with low wattage brain power can grasp.
A timeline takes visitors through the highs and lows of brain discoveries, like the 1817 finding that revealed Parkinson's disease, and a 3-dimensional tour of the brain via ShockWave lets you zoom in and out for detailed views. At Mind Illusions, play with how our brains grasp movement, color, angles and form, or click on Episodes to learn how the brain develops from birth to old age.
pbs.org
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Internet Study Guide
Combine Cliff Notes, your math tutor and that nerd in your chem lab and you've got something close to Spark Notes Study Guides. Whether your final exam is on Othello, trig, even electrochemistry or thermodynamics, SparkNotes is your new best friend.
With extensive study guides for literature, astronomy, philosophy, history - you name it - this is the site for students to bookmark for semester-long reference or that big exam. Fifteen different subject areas are thoroughly covered, including an entire section devoted to Shakespeare, with summaries, timelines and terminology. Each subject area has what's needed most, like sample problems in the math section.
sparknotes.com
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A Beautiful Mind
If you liked the movie, try the homework. Here is the faculty page of John Nash, Nobel laureate and subject of the current film starring Russell Crowe as Dr. Nash, the brilliant, troubled mathematician who still studies game theory, cosmology and gravitation at Princeton University.
math.princeton.edu
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Photography Ratings
From "Boots N Shoes" to "Jagged Leaves," PhotoSIG shows photos by people who like to take pictures, whether homebound snapshooters or working pro's. The twist: everyone gets to critique everyone's photos, just like a photography class.
The site is new, so all sections are not fully built-out, but there's no lack of interesting photos to be browsed by ratings, photographer or subect matter - even Most Controversial - and a robust discussion forum is full of talk about photo quality scanners, f stops and the business of e-photography. Post your questions about photography in the Photo Answer Man forum or read articles, coming soon, about your favorite hobby.
photosig.com
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E-nature
Discover nature at home at E-nature, the National Wildlife Federation's full-service web site for nature lovers. Want to attract creatures to your own backyard, or find out what poisonous snakes might be in the local park? E-nature can help with its Local Field Guides, searchable by zip code.
The site takes visitors beyond their own fence, too, with field guides for 5,000 species and a ParkFinder, offering maps, species lists and reviews of parks and wildlife refuges nationwide. But the site's distinction is its local focus. Use the online habitat planner, learn how to have your yard certified by the National Wildlife Federation and get expert answers to nature questions, like why birds fly into windows.
enature.com
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Source for the above text: tricksandtrinkets.com |
