Bill's Miscellaneous Links

Miscellaneous Links

These links might be interesting to some, useful to others. Sections include some general reference sources, political news and opinion, HTML authoring tools, sources of web browser enhancements, online places to acquire books and CDs or travel information, some other stuff, and information on pyramid sch... er multi-level marketing. I include them here with no promises that any of them will be either interesting or useful to you. Note also the inclusion of a commercial site does not represent an endorsement by me. Such sites are merely samples of what's available.

General Reference/General Interest

My Virtual Reference Desk: Virtual encyclopedia; newspapers; search engines.
Infomine: Scholarly internet resources
Free Translation: Translate stuff from one language to another, but be careful.
The Jargon File: Computer jargon. Searchable.
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Online Dictionary: Indexes over 70 online dictionaries. Search them all or a subset.
MapQuest!: Locate just about any street address in the U.S. Get a road map from here to there.
PCL Map Collection: Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection - a feature of the University of Texas online library.
USGS Mapping Information: Allows search for features by name, type, USGA 7.5´ x 7.5´ map, etc. Provides map and description of location.
misc.taxes.moderated: Information regarding the Usenet group.

The Constitution of the United States

Somebody quotes the Constitution to you? Look it up - a lot of people out there don't really have a clue what it actually says.

GuideStar

"The National Database of Nonprofit Organizations" A place to find information (including form 990) on over 700,000 nonprofits.

Museums Online

Three major categories (Art, History, Science) and many sub-categories.

Rx List

"the internet drug index" A good place to find descriptions of prescription drugs and their cautions, interactions, etc.

Root-Zone Whois Information

Top Level Domains (TLDs) - Country codes.

Yahoo People Search

Look up phone numbers for names you know.

Anywho

Find Telephone Number, Email, Home Page URL, etc.

Yahoo Used Car Guide

Find wholesale and retail values of used cars.

Yahoo Weather Links

Weather forecasts for all the United States

Political News & Opinion

Roll Call Newspaper Online (Paid subscription required.): News and opinion regarding activities of the U.S. Congress and federal government. (Available through Longwood's Greenwood Library subscription to LexisNexis Academic.
OpenSecrets.org: Information on campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures.
CNN Inside Politics: Cable news channel's politics web page.
Washington Post Politics: DC newspaper's politics web page.

National Journal (Paid subscription required.): News and opinion regarding activities of the federal government.
FactCheck.org: Anneberg Political Fact Check
Campaigns and Elections: News and opinion regarding federal and state elections.
Congressional Biography Dictionary: Short biography on every member of Congress since day 1.

Blogs

The Fix by Chris Cillizza: Washington Post's "Politics Blog"
Capitol Briefing by Paul Kane: Washington Post's "Reports on Congress"
The Sleuth by Mary Ann Akers: Washington Post's "Behind the Scenes in Washington"
Washington Wire: Wall Street Journal's "Political Insight and Analysis"

Political Ticker: CNN's "latest political news with dispatches, behind-the-scenes reports, and expert commentary."
Real Clear Politics: "RCP culls and publishes the best commentary, news, polling data, and links to important resources from all points of the political compass and covering all the important issues of the day."
SwampLand: Time's "blog about politics in the nation's capital."
The Swamp: Tribune's Washington Bureau
Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership: The Sorensen Institute is at UVA.

Web Page Building

HTML Coding & Web Page Design

HTML Help: The first link on this list is a very complete 'Beginner's Guide'. There are many useful resources listed.
Web Developer's Virtual Library: Self described "Encyclopedia of Web Design, Tutorials, Articles, and Discussions"
The Barebones Guide to HTML: Written and maintained by Kevin Werbach
Internet & WWW: Design & Strategy: This site breaks down into two major areas: Strategy & Design and Design & Technology
webreference.com - The webmaster's reference library: More advanced concerns.
Webreference.com: HTML 3.2 and Netscape 4.0: Specific information on taking advantage of the capabilities of Netscape 4.0.
The HTML Writers Guild Website: A professional organization for folks who make a living writing HTML (or would like to).
W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium: Develops common standards for the web. HTML is arguably the most important facet that needs standardization.
The Virtual Library of WWW Development: Self-described: "A comprehensive illustrated encyclopedia of web technology,..." Everything you wanted to know about the World Wide Web and more.

Graphics and Other Enhancements

Many of the graphics I've used in my pages came from one of these sites.

Gilbert's Icon Archive: Includes transparent gifs and antimated gifs.
Free Backgrounds: Also has buttons, banners and icons.
ART ala Carte: Free Stuff: Backgrounds, banners, buttons and bars.
Sound files: A variety of wavs, etc.
Clay's Sound Emporium: Wavs from TV, movies, etc.

Enhancing your Browers & Other Ways of Using the Internet

Stroud's Consummate Internet Apps List: Extensive collection of Windows and Win95 applications for use in exploiting the internet.
TuCows: Self described 'worlds best collection of internet software'.
Download.com: Downloads for Windows, Mac, Linux, Palm.

Books and CDs

Amazon.com Books!: Self-described 'earth's biggest bookstore'
Barnes and Noble: Self-described 'world's largest bookseller online'
CDnow : Main : Homepage: Music, movies, etc.

Travel Information

Travelocity: One of two sites with the most favorable comments in a recent issue of National Geographic's Traveler
Expedia: One of two sites with the most favorable comments in a recent issue of National Geographic's Traveler
biztravel: This wouldn't be a business school professor's page without a link to a site specializing in business travel.
Gorp: What is travel without adventure, mosquitoes, toe stubs, and sweat?

Entertainment, Fun, everything but Games

Art on the Net: Provides artists with space to display their work online; also provides a calendar of events and links to other art sites.
CultureFinder: The Internet Address for the Performing Arts: Calendar of events for Canada and the United States; columns and other features; library.
Everyrule: The rules to every game you can imagine (except for some obvious ones like major league baseball).
Google News: Longwood doesn't provide Usenet groups. This site allows users to read most of those groups.
Sports Jerk of the Week: Jocks from baseball, basketball, football and hockey who behave like jerks.
The John Philip Sousa Home Page: March of the month plus other sound clips; music, books, historical information.
Discovery Online's Hackers' Hall of Fame: Five eras from pre-1969 to post-1994
AskMe.Com: A place to submit questions that are answered by self-styled experts. Be very careful; the ratings of the experts are not necessarily correlated with their level of expertise.
Urban Legends & Folklore: A site for debunking urban and Internet myths, legend, and folklore. If you see something that looks like a hoax, this site could confirm your doubts.

Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division: This is a scary one!
King Features Syndicate: The comics aka the funny papers. Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Funky Winkerbean, Hagar the Horrible, Sally Forth, Tumbleweeds, and many, many more.
Stardate Online: 'Stardate' is one of those public radio short subjects - topic: astronomy. The website has transcripts of the radio segments plus additional material on the stars, planets, and the night sky in general.
TV Guide Online: Lot's of stuff including daily listings.
Mail and News: This is one web site that provides Usenet access, both reading and posting.
Mailgate: Another web site that provides Usenet access, this on in the UK. No .alt or .us newsgroups are available. It updates postings more often than others.
misc.taxes available at Google's web pages: A Usenet group to ask and answer tax questions. A place to see tax protester spam. Not to be confused with misc.taxes.moderated. Here are the Mailgate and Mail and News links to the same group.
Tax Corner: Another place to ask and answer tax questions. Another place to see tax protester spam.
Bill Brown's Personal Pages: These pages include genealogy

Cable TV

All of these web sites include program schedules and descriptions.

A&E
Arts & Entertainment. Features, etc.
AMC
American Movie Classics. Features, etc.
Animal Planet
Can you say "Croc Hunter!" A part of the Discovery Channel empire. There is considerable supplementary information for many of the broadcast programs.
BBC-A
BBC America. Features, etc.
BET
Black Entertainment Television. Features, etc.
Bravo
More artsy fare than the other movie channels. Features, etc.
Cinemax
Features & fluff.
CMT
Self-styled "America's #1 country music channel"
CNN
Breaking news and features.
CNNfn
Breaking financial news and features.
Comedy Central
The Daily Show, The Man Show, Win Ben Stein's Money
Court TV
Breaking courtroom news and features.
C-Span
Congress in session, hearings, features.
The Discovery Channel
There is considerable supplementary information for many of the broadcast programs.
Discovery Health
A part of the Discovery Channel empire. There is considerable supplementary information for many of the broadcast programs.
E!
"Clip of the day" and "Starboards" are two regular features.
ESPN
Source of breaking sports news and features.
Family Channel
Fox Family Channel, that is. Features, etc.

Food Network
The Iron Chef. Emeril Lagasse. Features, etc.
fX
FX Network. Features, etc.
The History Channel
"What Else Happened Today?" and "What's New" are two interesting sections.
HBO
Features & fluff pieces
House & Garden
Features and "how to" articles
The Learning Channel
A part of the Discovery Channel empire. There is considerable supplementary information for many of the broadcast programs.
Lifetime
Women are the target market.
Nickolodian
What ever happened to "You Can't Do That on Television"?
MSNBC
Breaking news, features, etc.
MTV
MTV news, features, etc.
SciFi
I never have liked referring to science fiction as scifi but this site has a bunch of stuff and links regarding the genre in all media.
SpeedVision
Cars, boats, motorcycles, airplanes.
TBS
Turner Broadcasting System, a member of the Time-Warner empire. Features etc.
TCM
Turner Classic Movies, a member of the Time-Warner empire. Features, etc.
TNN
The National Network (used to be The Nashville Network).
Travel
A part of the Discovery Channel empire. In addition to program schedules and descriptions there is considerable supplementary information for many of the broadcast programs.
USA
USA Network. Features, etc.
Weather
Breaking weather news, features.

Multi-level Marketing (MLM) Information

Let's be clear where I'm coming from. MLM is a cover term for pyramid scheme. Here are a few web sites that provide information that leads to that conclusion.

Quatloos! Guide to Multi-Level Marketing (MLM): A short, effective treatment plus links to other information sites.
Lotions and Potions: The Bottom Line About Multilevel Marketing Plans: A U.S. Federal Trade Commission information page.
MLM Survivors Homepage: Starts with ten test items, a set of questions to answer for yourself about a "business proposal."
Charles W. King: Never let it be said I totally ignore the other side of the story. King is a proponent of multi-level marketing and is often cited by the promoters of these schemes.

What's Wrong With Multi-Level Marketing?: A lengthy (about 22 printed pages) which describes the problems with MLM (including market saturation, the pyramid structure, morality and ethics, and relationship issues.
Le Club Prive: The parent site which includes the previous linked article. Information on a variety of MLM schemes including recent news.
Internet Fraud: How to Avoid Internet Investment Scams: This is more general information provided by the SEC about cyberfraud. I've included it here because many pyramid schemes are marketed on the Internet.
National Fraud Information Center & Internet Fraud Watch: This general information page is maintained by the National Consumers League.

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Any comments, corrections or suggestions can be e-mailed to William P. Brown at brownwp@longwood.edu.

This page last updated Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 04:59 PM.