Sites

Official U.S. Time

There are a number of places I'm sure you can get the correct time of day. This is the one I use. It's from the National Institute of Standards.

Project Gutenberg

Hopefully you know that Gutenberg invented the printing press and was the first to print the Bible. This project was named in his honor. Download books and read them on your PC. Mostly these are classics. Not that I recommend e-text reading over the printed book, but some might be hard to find, or you may just want to search for something in a book.
This is not like some sites from which you 'borrow' the book, something that is weird to me for the internet, nor does it require any special software. Just download it, as it is in plain text. You can get it in zip format also, for a quicker download.

Online Library of Literature

Here is another site with classics to read. Find them by author. There are only 30 authors, and you read online, unlike Project Gutenberg . But you've got Mark Twain, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, and 26 more. Read up.

Free Ed

This site has the type of courses I like to take online. No sign up, no books, and free. Around 120 courses. Time to start learning.

Wxusa Weather

Many sites have their weather link. Wxusa is the place to start to find your own favorite or get comparisons, or any other weather information. Wxusa does not provide the weather, but is full of links to all the major weather pages, many of which probably use the same source. You'll also find special areas, like who has up-to-date information on a hurricane. So, rather than my picking one for you, have fun finding the ones you like.

Which is Worse?

A fun test. This site poses sets of 2 choices for you to choose which is worse. Nothing like being on the horns of a dilemma. Then find out how others have decided. Some choices are ones that you wouldn't even want to think about happeneing, they are so gross. But it is fun to choose and see how others decided. No right or wrong here.

Zillow

A cool site that will provide you with the price houses sold for on a street within the past few years or their estimated current value. You can enter the exact address, enter a street, or the town. They give you aerial views of the location and info about the homes.

Nutrition Data

Interested in the vitamins and minerals in a food? NutritionData's site has all this information, plus the complete makeup of the food, the RDA, and more. You can even get data on the foods at various fast-food restaurants, and it provides many useful tools for analyzing your diet. You can select a food category, or be more restrictive and identify the type of food within that category. For example, select fruit (category), or select fruit and enter orange.

Another resource, though not as presentable an interface nor as complete information, is U.S.D.A Food Database from the Department of Agriculture. Just enter the food you want to search on, and hit the enter key; don't click on either of the buttons to do the search. It does not give the information in terms of percent of daily requirements, just the absolute numbers.

World's Healthiest Foods

This is another site on food that is really good. Start by clicking on getting started at the top. You can then get to the areas that I find great about this site. On the left side, under Eating Healthy you'll find a list of foods from A-Z and Essential Nutrients. The first has a list of healthy foods, that you can get information on what the foods do for you and what vitamins and minerals they have. The second is a list of vitamins and minerals, that will get you what they are for and where to find them. And all of this information is in pretty good detail.

Bernardine Fine Art Jewelry

My recommendation for this site is not as a place to buy jewelry, but as a place to learn about jewelry. It is the best site I've seen for gemstones. They are listed by color as well birthstone and name. Words you might not understand have links to explanations. Good descriptions about each gemstone, including legends. And I haven't gotten into any of their other jewelry.

Flags of the World

Now you know I like lighthouses, I also find flags interesting. Flags of the World is not a handsome looking sight, they are laoded with information about each flag. There are many more flags than just the flags of nations, too. Use a link near top like the one to their index of flags by country. So, besides for the national flag there is info on all kinds of flags used in that country.

Further, there are links to other sites about flags. For instance, Flag Detective lets you find those flags by design and color. Pretty neat.

Murphy Laws Site

Murphy's Laws may be thought of as truths by many people. Get the origin of the original Murphy Law, and read all his other laws divided by category, such as general, technical, computer, love, teaching, and many more.

Mail 2 Web

If you just want a simple, free web access to your POP3 e-mail at your ISP, then Web 2 Mail will do the trick. No need to register. Just enter your mail address and your password to your ISP. You can reply to the e-mail or forward it and it looks as if it came from your mail.

Fifties Web

I have special links for this site in other places, but you should check out the whole site. It's not just fifties music or burma shave, as the other links indicate, but also has the top TV shows, people of the 50's who have died, Fads, Fashions, and Slang, and more. You people of the 50's will enjoy checking it out.

Burma Shave

Remember the old Burma Shave signs that were on the highways. Relive them here. You can also see them and get an introduction at one of my favorite sites for music, The Fifties Website. For more of the story go to Backwoods Home Magazine or The Burma Shave Phenomenon.

Crazy Fads

Another trip down memory lane can be had at Crazy Fads. They tell a little about the fads of each decade from the 1920's to the present. For each fad there is also either a link to some other site that has more info on that fad, or not so worthwhile, an image presenting the fad on their own site.

Free Translation

If you wish to translate something from or to English from a few of the major European languages, this is a simple way to do it. You can translate from French, Spanish, and German. You can translate to these languages plus Italian, Portuguese, and Norwegian. Just type it in or copy it in, and hit translate. Quick and easy. Most importantly, not a bad translation.

Geography Test

How's your knowledge of geography? Just the simple stuff - countries of the world and states in the United States. This site is a place to test it. The tests are by continent, almost. You can click on help to get the results.

Degree Confluence Project

Confluence is the meeting together at one juncture or point. This project has the goal to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. They only include the 12,000 land confluences. People go to these confluences and report their results to the project. Some rather interesting stories of the problems in reaching these spots.