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Embassies of the World
World travelers can put all the world's embassies at their fingertips by making a quick stop at EmbassyWorld.com, an easily searchable database of embassies and consulates worldwide. Select a world location from A to Z or search by either Whose Embassy? or In What Location? to go right to the embassy's own web page.
embassyworld.com
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Reef Expedition
Tour the Atlantic Ocean's largest coral reef without muddying up your boots at the World Wildlife Fund's Expeditions in Conservation: The Mesoamerican Reef. Home to more than 65 species of coral and 500 species of fish, the reef stretches 450 miles from the Yucatan Peninsula to the coast of Honduras.
Visitors can read about the expedition, take an underwater tour of the reef via ReelPlayer Media, view photos of the diverse inhabitants - from the manatee to the red-footed booby - meet the scientists and learn the science via a spectacular underwater journey. For 20 years, the Fund has been working to ensure the survival of this vast eco-region. The site tells how you can help.
worldwildlife.org
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Flash Miniature Golf
Those clever boys at Harvard have found a way to burn piles of tuition dollars under cover of their mouse and monitor, as they try to beat par at the Mini Putt, an addictive Flash miniature golf game residing on the Harvard University server.
The course is simple and the play is solitary - no chance of accidentally clubbing an 8-year old on this virtual course -- but mini-putt conventions like a windmill hole are honored, and you get a full 18-hole play. Dotted lines help players gauge angles and stroke power, and a sunk ball gives a satisfying rattle as it circles the cup rim. A scorecard shows par for each hole and keeps track of your progress.
people.fas.harvard.edu
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Teaching with Historic Places
The mind-numbing drill of memorizing dates is banished at Teaching With Historic Places, where history students read letters from Civil War soldiers to understand the Battle of Gettysburg or design and market a new car after studying Thomas Edison's "Invention Factory."
Ancient ruins, Presidents' homes, main streets and battlefields are brought to the classroom via real properties listed in the National Park Service's registry of historic places, using primary source material to enliven social studies, geography, civics and other subjects. A rich mine for teachers, the site offers free downloadable lesson plans, teachers' guides, worksheets and tips on how to lead students to unearth local history in their own communities.
cr.nps.gov
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The Skeptic's Dictionary
Disbelievers will find a home at the Skeptic's Dictionary, a comprehensive critical survey of questionable therapies, eccentric beliefs and dangerous delusions, from werewolves to Yeti, urine therapy to unicorns.
skepdic.com
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National Security Archive
Seekers of the unvarnished truth about international affairs might want to start at the National Security Archive, founded in 1985 by journalists, scholars and a public interest law firm who used the Freedom of Information Act to acquire what has grown into the world's largest non-governmental library of declassified documents.
Using the latest digital indexing technology, the holdings include more than 2 million pages in over 200 collections, easily searchable by keyword. The physical archive in DC handles more than 2,500 info requests yearly, but the web site makes it easy to get the inside scoop on US decision-making from original documents, read news on such past policies as our inaction during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, or join the Archive e-mail list.
gwu.edu
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A Guide to Internet Lingo and Emoticons
The computers that were supposed to free us up for more leisure activity have instead become great big time-suckers, so much so that serious users have created hieroglyphics for a hurried generation - the shorthand way to express emotions. Translate that deep thought your ICQ buddy is expressing by going to the Guide to Internet Lingo and Emoticons.
pcworld.com
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News Context
Between immigration and stem cell research, it's not easy being an informed voter these days. Get help at NewsBatch.com, where an administrative law judge has taken on the education of the citizenry to fill the knowledge gap with summaries of key policy topics.
The site includes illustrations with linked charts and maps: immigration, for example, links users to a pie chart that shows preferential job categories and a graph of immigration patterns since 1820. References to key Congressional votes and how similar issues are tackled by other nations help give the broad view. Based on news and research materials and government statistical sources, the site is a boon to students as well as responsible voters.
newsbatch.com
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Best of History Websites
Good history info on the web is as vast as history itself, so visitors will find a trip to Best of History Web Sites useful preparation for the tour. A portal created for students, history educators and history buffs, the site rates all the other history sites to make it easier to find the most useful and accurate among them.
Created by a former Harvard prof and current history teacher, the site has reviewed links to over 700 of the most stimulating history-related web sites, with a focus on those offering multimedia technologies. Categories cover pre-history to 20th century, links send you to lesson plans and multimedia resources, and a special section on technology rates articles that help integrate computers into the classroom.
besthistorysites.net
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Source: tricksandtrinkets.com |
