Links of Interest

My links of interest are a result of my enthusiasm for research. I spend many hours surfing the internet searching for PPP Retirement plans material, and often I come across a site that I find either extremely interesting or down right humorous – the following are the first few favorite sites – more to come.

This search service is now one of my top four. For researchers, their dictionary-like format for classifying information makes the assignment less tiresome and far more rewarding – it’s unlike any other search engine on my list.

Kelly Benham writes in the St. Petersburg Times: “Futureme.org is a bland-looking, no-frills Web Site, like the diary of someone who would use a composition notebook and a black pen. In it’s stark white message box, people write an e-mail to themselves and set a date for delivery sometime between now and 30 years from now.”

You have a choice – keep your message private or Ok for public viewing. NOTE: something similar further down this list Write an e-mail to the future you.

Like many of us, did you get an e-mail from a well meaning friend warning you to keep your kids and pets away from poinsettia plants because they’re poisonous? They’re not.
There’s a lot of this misinformation flooding many an e-mail inbox. So how do you check out what’s real?

I found out the story behind that poinsettia scare. “the belief in poinsettia poison appears to extend back to 1919 when the two-year old child of a U.S. Army officer died.” But there was never any proof that poinsettia leaves were responsible for the child’s death and the report was later determined to be hearsay.” This from a site you can find out What’s truth or fiction.

Here’s a site I use, not only to search for royalty-free images that I can use on my website, but to also sell my images. It’s a great outlet if you are serious about your talent for taking meaningful pictures. If somebody uses your pics you receive half the revenue. If however you are in need of images prices start a buck a copy. photo bank

Now think about this. If you could file away what you’re thinking about today in an internet time capsule so you could read it exactly ten years from now, what thoughts would you preserve? One of the problems with this intriguing possibility is having the same Email address a few years from now, however, if you think that's a good possibility check out this site. Type in your text, pick the appropriate time range, click send and wait. At my age, sending my thoughts back to myself didn't make much sense so I directed my info to my children and grandchildren in the hope they keep the same Email address. The simple application has some big time names behind it.

This video was forwarded to me by a friend and I revisit often to just look and listen. This guy's name is Jake Shimabukuro playing a “Ukulele” in Central Park NY. The song he plays is George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” - he's amazing - and a ukulele yet - enjoy

A fun site – the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest. Their slogan is “Where WWW means Wretched Writers Welcome - I’m still working on my entry - here’s the details.

An international literary parody contest, the competition honours the memory (if not the reputation) of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873). The goal of the contest is childishly simple: entrants are challenged to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Although best known for "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1834) which has been made into a movie three times, originating the Expression "the pen is mightier than the sword," and phrases like "the great unwashed" and "the almighty dollar," Bulwer-Lytton opened his novel Paul Clifford (1830) with the immortal words that the "Peanuts" beagle Snoopy plagiarized for years, "It was a dark and stormy night."

Here are some examples of previous winners

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2005 Winner:

As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual.

Dan McKay Fargo, ND A 43-year-old quantitative analyst for Microsoft Great Plains is the winner of the 23rd running of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. A resident of Fargo, North Dakota, McKay is currently visiting China, perhaps to escape notoriety for his dubious literary achievement.
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

OK, this link comes from an admitted Junk Food addict. Here you can get recipes for some of the best known fast food and franchise restaurant chains such as McDonalds, Wendy’s, Red Lobster, KFC, Applebee’s etc. It's a commercial site but very low cost. What grabbed me was the recipe for Red Lobsters cheddar biscuits to which I'm addicted. Among the 100 plus recipe secrets – KFC original recipe chicken. Have to admit I haven’t perfected the original as yet but have come darn close – fooled a couple of friends, but this is the first time Audrey’s let me into the kitchen for something other than stacking the dishes in the dishwasher. Fun activity – see if your friends can tell the difference. America's Most Wanted Recipes.

Another site offering all kinds of information on a wide range of topics. Example a couple of things I learned recently–

• although I won’t be around to worry about it – a 400 metre asteroid will almost hit earth in 2029.
• When viewing a photograph, North Americans tend to look at the object in the foreground while Asians take in the entire scene.

One of my main beefs as an air traveler is the difficulty of selecting a seat either when completing on online booking or at the airport. After one of my tirades against the airline industry,this became one of my favorite sites after a friend guided me to this location full of seating layouts of nearly every passenger jet now in service. The layout for each plane even tells you were the TV’s are located and what the audio system offers. Keep it up on a separate screen when booking online - Seat Guru

This is a favorite site that proves it was a good thing I didn't go to Medical school. If you want to get more information on human biology, visit this site. It has a drag and drop presentation on the bodies nervous system, muscles, organs and such. Take the test and see if you missed your calling by not going to medical school. Also try the Interactive Psychological test and get to know yourself. The whole family will get a kick of visiting here - BBC Science

Great stuff here – Listen to west coast Orca whales off Vancouver island - live. Free subscription service for them to notify you at key times when Orca near their cameras and mikes. Hear the Orca whales.

Here’s a favorite link that can tell you what happened on any given day from the beginning of time – timelines range from the Big Bang to today.
On the day of this writing, August 2nd, 2005, in 216 BCE Aug 2, Hannibal Barca of Carthage won his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannae.
Hannibal seized a grain depot in the small village of Cannae in order to lure the Romans to battle. Having crossed over the Alps, Hannibal‘s forces defeated the Romans at the Trebia River and also at Lake Trasimene.
I also found out that four days before I was born in 1928, “Che” Guevara saw the first light of day and the day after my birth , May 19/28, The 1st annual "Frog Jumping Jubilee" at Angel's Camp, Ca., drew 51 frogs. The timeline

I spend a great deal of time searching the internet for research books and when looking for a tech book, I visit this site which is loaded with books that are screen readable or downloadable. Favorite site for Tech Research Books

Recently I came across this headline – One in 25 dads could unknowingly be raising another man’s child, researchers find.This from a site that features a number of updated science reports. This and other news releases.

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