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BREAKING SURF
The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has ruled that reciting the present form of the US Pledge of Allegiance in schools is unconstitutional because the pledge contains the words "under God". The judges wrote that forcing students to listen to the words - which California law explicitly encourages - violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids the government from promoting religion. Federal law already prohibits forcing students to recite the pledge - this case is about forcing students to hear it. The details are in the ruling, which many people apparently have not bothered to read before calling the media and their congresscritters, pro or con. Some background on the Pledge of Allegiance and the Establishment Clause is also worth knowing before plunging into the debate.Ruling: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0016423P.pdf
Pledge: http://www.vineyard.net/vineyard/history/pledge.htm
Establishment Clause: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/estabinto.htm
As you live your day-to-day life, the world you interact with gathers an amazing amount of data about you and what you do. To make the point, Popular Science writer Mary Beher follows Mark, an imaginary graphic designer from Chicago. As Mark goes through his day, Beher's article exposes the electronic traces he leaves behind. Mark leaves a trail through ATM records, surveillance cameras, his netsurfing and e-mailing habits at work, medical records, cell phone traces, traffic records, and even nightclub identity checks. Now, consider what could happen if somebody had access to all those records - what could they find out about you? What could they not? How could they misuse this information? Your government and anybody with a bit of money already does have access to this information, if they want it. Sleep tight.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,260388,00.html
A Peek at Microsoft's Future Projects
Microsoft this week leaked peeks at its ambitious next generation of operating systems. A MSNBC story focuses on software which will use a new generation of security and encryption chips. This so-called Palladium software will use the chips to help keep track of who can see and disseminate the information that passes through your computer. This includes such things as viruses, spam, personal information, and, of course, copyright-protected media. The happy marketing premise is that you will be able to control your information with greater precision, but the grim reality is that it's all aimed at protecting the intellectual property rights of large media corporations, and possibly aimed at wiping out open-source software. The Register and Ross Anderson are properly skeptical. A Fortune article reveals details about a major rewrite of Microsoft operating systems called Longhorn, buried in a puff-piece that praises Bill Gates. The new operating system will be all about keeping track of what you do and all your data in the interest of solving the messy filesystem problem plaguing so many computer users. The connection with Palladium is obvious.MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/770511.asp
Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25891.html
Anderson: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/tcpa-faq.html
Fortune: http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=208505
Proposed Fees Cut, but Webcasters Shutting Down in Droves
The Librarian of Congress's verdict is in on webcasting, and while the ruling has generally cut proposed licensing fees in half, a number of streaming webcasters have opted out and just closed down. SomaFM and other sources of online radio have stopped streaming, presumably because they can't come up with even the new rates. SomaFM has pretty much the whole take on their site. We have links to the Librarian of Congress's announcement and the CNET and Wired takes on it. Boiling it down, a webcaster that averages a mere 1,000 listeners per hour and that plays 15 songs per hour would have to pay for 15,000 transmissions per hour at 0.07 cents per transmission, or $10.50. The ephemeral license fee for converting CDs to MP3s for streaming adds another 92 cents to a total of $11.42 per hour, or about $275 per day. Remember, that's for a piddling 1,000 listeners per hour, if we read the rules correctly, and doesn't include costs of bandwidth and equipment, labor and overhead, or buying CDs in the first place.Ruling: http://www.copyright.gov/carp/webcasting_rates_final.html
SomaFM: http://www.somafm.com/
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938037.html
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,53377,00.html
Audiogalaxy Submits to RIAA, Life Goes on
Like Napster, Audiogalaxy ran its music-sharing operations out of central servers, and likewise attracted the legal attention of the RIAA. In light of the Napster ruling that held that centralized systems are accountable for materials found on their systems, Audiogalaxy agreed to remove all music which it did not have permission to use. The case was predictable, but is only a bump in the road to defining the legal status of decentralized sharing networks like Morpheus and Kazaa. The RIAA and similar organizations need to come to grips with the fact that content delivery has changed. The MPAA fought vigorously against deployment of the VCR, claiming that it would kill the movie industry. Today, the movie industry makes a lot of money on VHS tapes, thanks to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Fighting technological advances is not a winning strategy. Wired tells us why the Audiogalaxy submission is irrelevant.Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,53342,00.html
Audiogalaxy: http://www.audiogalaxy.com/
We like stories that avoid glibness and promote understanding. Technology Review has one about trying to bring Ghana into the digital mainstream, which is told mainly through the prism of a local data entry company. The firm employs almost 300 locals and provides data entry services mainly to US companies. It has succeeded despite poor roads, a telecom system with less than 250,000 telephone lines for 20 million people, and a deficit of cell stations. The company uses a satellite dish to send and receive data. Frequent power outages are a problem, however - they send the manager scurrying to start the emergency generator and reboot all the computers. The manager has to reverse the process when power is restored because running the generator is expensive and a system to switch over automatically too costly. Some government officials and economists disdain such low-end tech jobs as data entry and regard companies like this as electronic sweatshops, but the employees earn wages higher than most can earn doing anything else. It may be fine to dream big, but its always necessary to start with the basics. This is a revealing but hopeful story that avoids triteness.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/zachary0702.asp
Around the World in a Balloon VI: Steve Fossett's Next Try
At press time, never-say-never balloonist Steve Fossett was well into his sixth attempt to circumnavigate the world solo in a balloon. His Spirit of Freedom craft is halfway into the journey, just beginning a west-to-east Atlantic crossing. Lest you think that this is just a pleasant little loft in a lazy balloon be aware that Fossett is actually facing serious danger. His balloon has been caught in bad weather and forced into rapid yo-yo changes in altitude. Ice accumulates on the canopy and can lead to uncontrolled plunges and crashes. Fossett's limited reserves of oxygen mean that if he spends too much time above 3,000 meters, he risks hypoxia. Of course, there's also the potential danger of ditching in remote ocean. Fossett's Web site has the latest update on the status of his attempt.http://www.spiritoffreedom.com/
Amusing, It's Not: Amundsen-Scott
The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is not your typical construction site. Communications are spotty at best, it's so dry inside that static is a major problem, temperatures can drop below -100 degrees F, and much of the year it's dark round the clock. Crews are working constantly to build the new facility, which will replace the existing overcrowded geodesic dome. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is no one's idea of Shangri-La, but for 27 years it has been a Mecca for scientists, providing a local base to study the frozen continent of Antarctica, the universe, and our planet's environment. With the weight of accumulating snow and ice slowly crushing the existing facility and new research facilities such as a muon and neutrino detector requiring additional space, the new station is badly needed, although it won't be ready until 2006. Putting it up is a major logistical and technical challenge - the materials have to come a long, long way, and special design features must let the building cope with shifting ice, snow drifts, strong winds, and other hazards. Wired has the intriguing but chilling tale.http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.07/southpole.html
Fireworks and the Fourth of July are about as American as you can get. This fascinating Nova Web site is designed to accompany a special on fireworks that will air July 2 on PBS. The site is a delight, with a marvelous section on the anatomy of a firework. If you love pyrotechnics and they are illegal where you live, this is a great vicarious thrill. Plus, it will make you want to go out and see the real thing over the holiday. And if you do go see the real things, Smithsonian photographers have some great tips on how to capture those explosive moments. An unofficial Montreal International Fireworks Competition site has photos and play-by-play reports of the world's best pyrotechnicians in action.
Nova: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fireworks/
Smithsonian: http://photo2.si.edu/firew/firew.html
Competition: http://www.montreal-fireworks.com/schedule.html
Census Stats Available to Public
It's trivial to note that the US census is a wealth of data. It is not trivial to note that the public now has unprecedented access to the data collected by Census 2000 at this new Census Bureau Web site. Type in your address and learn about the composition of your neighborhood across a variety of axes, including income and race. Are you keeping up with the Joneses? The mapping software is incredibly impressive and the results are astounding.http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html
Salon May Not Be Able to Stay in Business
The auditors of Salon Media Group, which owns the award-winning Salon magazine, have "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue. The company's advertising revenue is down 68% from a year ago. Despite cutting expenses and attracting 39,500 paying subscribers, profits for this year are half last year's and the publicly traded company can't make ends meet. It will have to raise more money within three to four months, and there is no guarantee that it will be able to do so. Needless to say, the demise of Salon would be a loss not only to fans of literate culture and political coverage but also to those who appreciate in-depth reporting about the online world. Reuters has a pair of articles on the company's financial troubles and subscriber sign-ups.Salon: http://www.salon.com/
Troubles: http://biz.yahoo.com/ri/020626/media_salon_1.html
Subscribers: http://biz.yahoo.com/ri/020618/media_salon_subscribers_1.html
Latest Top500 List of Big Bruiser Computers
These monsters of the computing world crush all more modest machines with their blinding speed and calculation power. The most recent list of the top 500 computers, introduced at the International Supercomputer Conference in Heidelberg, Germany, is a feast of machine facts. For those of more modest appetite, there's also a list of the top five and the top ten mighty machines. Atop the sandpile, with a smug grin on its face, way, way more powerful than anything else at 35.86 TF/s is the Earth Simulator built by NEC. Nothing else even comes close right now. The top ten includes three rookie machines, eight supercomputers installed in the US, and five IBM products. Don't you just love this stuff - the data, the stats, the numbers, the jostling for top ten spots, the rivalry, the roars that go up when the flag is planted? If the cool hiss of the air conditioning and the lure of the terafloppery turn you on, you can browse here for hours. Germany is Europe's top supercomputing country, with 64 machines in the top 500, but France boasts the single biggest computer in Europe.http://www.top500.org/
NPR Tries to Control Incoming Web Links, Reconsiders
National Public Radio (NPR) normally only draws fire from conservatives who believe it is too liberal, but critics of all political stripes are coming down on the radio network for its decision to try to ban external links to its Web site and online content. NPR argues that it wants to control where its material appears to avoid appearing to support causes it doesn't and to quash sites that link to NPR in lieu of original content. It thoughtfully offers an online form which prospective linkers can fill out to request permission to use a link. With equal if not more thought, nearly every Web custodian aimed a virtual slap upside NPR's head, including Cory Doctorow who, at his Boingboing blog, refutes NPR's reasoning point by point. Wired has more.NPR: http://www.npr.org/about/privacypolicy.html
Doctorow: http://boingboing.net/2002_06_01_archive.html#85189946#85189946
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,53355,00.html
"Halcyon Days" of Gaming Available Online for Free
"Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers", an e-book of interviews with game programmers, was first published in 1997 on a 3.5" diskette. It's now available on the Web for free. It's mostly about video game programming, and provides some interesting insights into the psyche of early game programmers. Some of the interviews are larded with ancient geekspeak, as in "Elf II which had am (sic) RCA1802 processor and a huge 256 bytes of RAM", but a lot of the content is much more accessible. So why, when it was selling for $20 a pop, has the author just posted a free copy of "Halcyon Days" online? Mainly, because he believes that the commercial course has been run, but the information itself is invaluable. We poked through the place, and we tend to agree.http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/
The Internet Society is one of several groups that hopes to take over running the .org top-level-domain (TLD) registry when Verisign's contract with ICANN expires at the end of December. Verisign agreed to give up the .org business and to concentrate on the more lucrative ..com and .net TLDs last year. According to the original grand scheme of Net domains, .org was to be used for non-profit organizations, but real life rarely works out that tidily and many commercial companies and individuals have landed .org registrations. Many outfits squat on a variety of TLD suffixes to stop others from usurping their names under different suffixes. ICANN will choose a ..org authority from among rival claimants, which include Internet Society and a partnership between Internet stalwarts Carl Malamud and Paul Vixie. In a New York Times article, Malamud asks rhetorically if its supposed to be a public trust or a public trough, which indicates what he thinks of some of the other would-be registrars. He's also said he'd put the software required to run the .org name system in the public domain. Newsforge also has a story, one with many links.
Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/15/technology/15NET.html
Newsforge: http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/06/19/1542210.shtml
VeriSign Selling Domain Names at eBay Store
Country-coded domain names are not regulated as are the standard top-level domains of .net, .com, etc. Perhaps that explains why there has been little outcry over VeriSign's domainsteading. VeriSign has apparently laid claim to a multitude of .cc, .tv, and .bz domains and has opened an eBay store to sell them off. It seems a bit unethical to us for a major registrar to hawk domain names. It should seem ludicrous to all that some of the domains - business.cc and news.cc - are on sale for $100,000. Normal yearly domain fees start around $15. VeriSign caught some glancing flak when CNET discovered that VeriSign was selling pornographic and trademarked domain names, which it had promised to avoid, but we're not sure that's the dirty pool that's worth looking at here.CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938379.html
Store: http://www.stores.ebay.com/id=47260199
Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL Label Their Content, Nobody Notices
The three Net heavyweights have apparently labelled "93 percent" of their content using the rating system developed by the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). You can see what the system looks like in the wild by viewing the source of, for example, the Yahoo home page. Look at the top "meta http-equiv" tag. The complete specifications for the tagging system can be found on the ICRA site. CNET has details.ICRA: http://www.icra.org/
Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com/
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-939072.html
Content-Caching Companies Akamai, Speedera Trade Lawsuits
Akamai Technologies has sued Speedera Networks over alleged theft of proprietary information. Both companies are in the content-caching business, basically speeding and distributing the delivery of content from large sites like Yahoo and CNN. Akamai alleges that Speedera's chief technical officer somehow obtained Akamai's log-in info for Keynote Systems. Keynote measures the response times of Web sites. Akamai claims that Speedera accessed its proprietary information, presumably performance data for Akamai clients, "at least 33 times". The lawsuit follows an important patent win for Speedera, which denies all allegations and traces this dispute to the patent fight. Speedera has countersued Akamai for unfair competition, false advertising, and trade libel. CNET has the story.Akamai: http://www.akamai.com/
Speedera: http://www.speedera.com/
Keynote: http://www.keynote.com/
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1033-939687.html
Web spammers have apparently perfected a technique to get their Web sites placed atop Web searches. Ever since search engines came into existence, spammers have been trying to get their sites to the top of search query lists. Promoters of a Russian site pulled off the trick on AOL recently. This CNET article describes a whole new tactic in the Web spamming war. Although the new technique, which involves a clever use of caching, can be defeated, it's clear that the spamming arms race is just beginning.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-937624.html
Amazon Crosses the 49th Parallel
Amazon has opened up a virtual storefront in Canada and Canadian booksellers are not happy. Canada has strict media laws that prevent foreign (yes, that includes the US) ownership of Canadian booksellers (and which prevent Canadians from seeing all those cool American Superbowl commercials), but Amazon claims that as an American company, it does not have to comply with Canadian law. Amazon has set up a shipping network with a subsidiary of Canada Post. Some of us Netsurfers have experience as Canadian purchasers of online books. Barnes and Noble was always a cheaper alternative than the Amazon since it precollected the Canadian Goods and Services Tax (GST) - US Amazon purchases required payment of the GST along with an extra collection fee on delivery. Canada's own Indigo bookseller is rarely a contender for our book-buying dollar as it rarely stocks what we want. The CBC has more.Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/
Indigo: http://chapters.indigo.ca/
CBC: http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?category=Business&story=/news/2002/06/24/amazon020624
"Star Trek Nemesis" Site and Trailer
It's the next movie in the Star Trek opus. The new Web site has the first trailer preview. Looks dark, and ominously it's billed as the Enterprise E's final journey. The movie opens Dec. 13.http://nemesis.startrek.com/
"Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" Trailer
It showed up online but not on the official Lord of the Rings Web site. Coming Soon has links to the new trailer. Another trailer will turn up July 3 in theaters.Coming Soon: http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/l/lotrtt.php
LOTR: http://www.lordoftherings.net/
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The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd
Casanova in Bohemia
Globalization and Its Discontents
The Golden Age: A Romance of the Far FutureSURFING SITES
Who's the latest clergyperson to be exposed for his pedophilia, rape, or other sexual abuse? Keep track of the ongoing religious scandals at the Clergy Abuse Tracker, a comprehensive weblog with more than enough postings to delight the Devil. The site from Poynter.org, a top journalism portal, is international in scope, although most of its news covers clerical abuse in North America. Contributors include journalists for the LA Times, Tampa Tribune, and Christian Science Monitor. Perhaps the site's most useful feature is its archive, which you can browse by news organization. Follow homepage links to media outlets in major US cities and you'll get a litany of accusations, criminal charges, and other revelations, including those that keep us watching our evening news in disbelief and disgust. Poynter.org promises to provide "Everything You Need To Be A Better Journalist." What does it take to be a better parishioner? Alas, Father, you can run, but the days when you can hide are numbered.http://www.poynter.org/clergyabuse/ca.htm
You have to wonder if occasionally the birds whose nests are rigged with webcams preen a bit and squawk, "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille." The system that Cloud Forest Alive rigged uses an infrared lighting system in nest boxes for capturing quetzals nesting in the cloud forest ecosystem of Central America. It both keeps the technology from disturbing the beautiful critters at work and prevents red eye. This year's QuetzalCam offerings prove that the life of a bird isn't easy. Clearly, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and Toucan Sam have more than snakes and Froot Loops on their respective menus. If you're up for a bit of sadness, the cam illustrates how much your life can change in just 20 seconds. It'll make you hug your loved ones.
http://www.cloudforestalive.org/tour/qcam/2002/highlights/highlights01.php
Et tu, blogger? Julius Caesar now has a blog that attempts to keep his colleagues in Rome in touch with his battle against the Gauls. Obviously, its not Caesar, but it is interesting reading. And it may make a new generation aware of the difference between the Punic Wars and World War II. What's next, historians writing blogs as if they were Abe Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, or Rene Descartes? The past is about to be reinvented, yet again.
http://www.sankey.ca/caesar/index.html
Save the jokes. Civil defense is no longer the "duck and cover" many remember from the bad old days of the Cold War. The Civil Defense Museum has a complete history of activities of the time and an excellent and growing collection of the stored materials that were for use after an attack. There are excellent photo essays, maps, and virtual tours of several types of fallout shelters. Particularly fascinating are the old radio announcements (in .WAV and MP3 format) to be used in the event of an attack or radiation emergency. They're chilling, and you may actually hear them used for real one day in the future as civil defense has again become very important.
http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/
History Index Perhaps Doomed to History
Here's a rarity for you: a site with pages that haven't been updated in years, many broken links, and a search engine that finds nothing, but which can still impress you with its organization and scope. The Department of History at University of California-Riverside maintains (or at least is keeping online) a massive index of historical sites called Horus' Web Links to History Resources. This directory will delight lovers of frames with its easy navigation. Buffs of Web history will appreciate its retro look and feel. Its alphabetical listings cover everything from acronyms to women's history. The overall purpose of Horus is "to introduce the diversity of educational and research resources available on the web not ordinarily consulted by historians and history students." To fulfill that mandate, it links to catalogues, postcards, and other offbeat source materials. Researchers are going to grumble, though, about all the dust. In Web Tools, for instance, we found a page entitled Usenet, Alt.net, H-Net Discussion Forums that states it was last updated Apr. 18, 1997. Anybody home? Without cleanup, this worthwhile site is doomed to extinction.http://horus.ucr.edu/
Great TV (and movies) doesn't just happen. A huge amount of planning and preparation is required before the first images hit tape. The Southwestern Writers Collection at Southwest Texas State University has acquired most of the paper materials and many props from the original 1989 production of the classic "Lonesome Dove" miniseries. You can view images of the actual screenplays, in many cases, complete with writers' notes and annotations. It will probably take longer to visit the site than it took to watch the final TV product. The devoted will learn much; casual visitors get an excellent sense of the complexity of modern TV production.
http://www.library.swt.edu/swwc/ld/ldexhibit1.html
At first, we thought this going to be miniature-scale paper model of city in Colorado. But no, origami boulder is just what it sound like - paper finely crafted into wad of shape of boulder and presented on bamboo display stand. This artistic interpretation of rock marketed to you by someone with passion against and healthy appreciation of American consumerism, and humor. If you have issues with Asian stereotypes, this probably not site for you. Like artist say, "I recommend you make big issue and tell everyone about evil site. Then I get famous like idiot Eminem rapper and sell so much artwork I retire this summer." Actually, if you sometimes little too free with the plastic, you probably don't want to visit, either.
http://origamiboulder.com/
Imagine being the proud father of six children, all of whom appear inordinately well adjusted and perhaps even gifted. Then, experience the grief and shame of finding that one of your sons has become a computer hacker. This parent offers his experienced perspective in dealing with such a traumatic event; one sure giveaway, as it happens, is easy to spot: your son will install hacker software such as Comet Cursor and Flash. He may even request a new processor from a third-world company called AMD, which deliberately disables security features that real American processor manufacturers employ to prevent hacking. Packed with solid information from an experienced father, this gem makes prudent reading. Of course, it's a spoof, but as hilarious as it is, the responses of those who took it seriously are even better. And don't miss the mission statement on the host Adequacy.org site.
Spoof: http://www.adequacy.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2001/12/2/42056/2147;sid=2001/12/2/42056/2147
Mission statement: http://www.adequacy.org/?op=special;page=mission;page=mission
Most likely, when we say spam, you think of uninvited mass e-mail. But there are a few old codgers around who can remember when Spam meant just one thing: curious canned meat. This is Hormel's official Spam page, where you can take a look at the Spam museum or peruse the unique Spam gift catalogue. Remember the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile? Hormel has a Spammobile now. The Spam in Time feature seems absolutely horrid, as well - one immediately imagines tins of green moldy stuff slowly desiccating away, gas masks, things like that. But it's not so grim, really. The whole place is actually sort of a kick; Hormel's finally decided that rather than fight the spam appellation, it's better to embrace and extend. Or was that Microsoft?
http://www.spam.com/
Buy a Piece of the Solar System
Skeptics will want to visit the Lunar Embassy, which calls itself "the leaders in extraterrestrial real estate and the ONLY company in the world to be recognized to possess a legal basis for selling and registering extraterrestrial properties." The FAQ addresses questions such as "How do I know this is not a fraud?" and "Why is it so cheap?" Check out the Property Info page if you want to buy a piece of the Moon, Venus, or Mars. Will your children inherit your property? What about taxes? These questions and others will likely be addressed at the Galactic Government Constitutional Congress in May 2003, which is described in the site's May-July 2002 newsflash. The Galactic Government already has ambassadors in various countries. "We are also negotiating with Hungary, Switzerland, Poland, India, China, and the Koreas.... All of our Ambassadors are enjoying much financial success with this enterprise and if you have the qualifications we would like to share the wealth with you in your countries." Worlds of opportunity await the first homesteaders from Earth. Instead of giving you a gold watch at retirement, your employer might give you a mountain or crater. The marketing campaign is already in place.http://www.lunarembassy.com/lunar/index_e.shtml
A substantial subset of fly fishers believe that the only good rods are the bamboo rods they make themselves or have custom-made. This site is closely linked to the Rodmakers mailing list (which is run by different folks). There are links for all manner of tools, supplies (bamboo blanks and fittings), and custom-makers. There are fascinating pages on and links to rod-making techniques. These beautiful tools will enchant even non-fishers. There is a strong bias against super-light, super-expensive graphite fly rods here. In fact, you won't find a kind word about them on this site.
http://www.canerod.com/rodmakers/
ONLINE TRAVEL
Rudy Brueggemann's A Trip to the Camps opens with a then-and-now pair of shots of Birkenau, and the text that follows is a bit beyond the average trip report that we all share with our friends. Auschwitz and Birkenau have become famous and popular travel destinations, but Brueggemann also bothers to visit almost forgotten camps like Stutthof and Mittelbau-Dora. You can glean a longer view of the Holocaust, here. At once intensely personal and informative, the site is littered with photos such as the gate to Auschwitz I, bearing the ironic description "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work makes you free"). This site is not Flashed nor Shocked, although it is at times shocking. It's not heavy on entertainment value. So why bother? The documentation's all been done before, hasn't it? Yeah, but seldom at such a personal level. Click the My Camps Trip link to start the story.http://www.rudyfoto.com/hol/nazicamps.html
Canada, despite - or because of - strong ties to the US, has an inferiority complex, or so it would seem in the eyes of stand-up comics who like to put it down. Emily Way, an American who has been living in Canada for ten years, is out to educate her compatriots with An American's Guide to Canada, a wonderful trove of facts ("Canada has more donut shops per capita than the United States does") and intriguingly entitled pages such as What Every Canadian Knows ("Mounties don't always look like that") and How to Tell You're in Canada ("Coke and Pepsi use real sugar instead of corn syrup"). If you're a stranger to the northern neighbor, you're going to learn a lot here you won't find in popular travel guides. A list of Canadianisms will help you with the language barrier. ("Pissed", for example, means one thing in the US and another in Canada.) Roadside Attractions will give motorists a taste of what to expect (or avoid). Way has been adding insights to her superb site since 1994. It's clear she has an understanding of life on both sides of the border.
http://emily.icomm.ca/
Wanna buy a square foot of Scotland for about the price of movie tickets and popcorn for two? The site claims that "plot owners will receive a legal deed granting them an undivided interest in Clett Island. This means that each owner can enjoy the whole island, and not just a 1 sq ft plot." Presumably, if every plot owner visited at the same time, enjoyment of the island would equate to vaguely 1 square foot of space each, provided they all stood upright and the island wasn't overbooked. Aside from the sale of Clett Island, this site has a nifty set of historical and mythical Scottish factoids.
http://www.clett.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
What's Feb. 14? If you think Valentine's Day, you're just hopelessly overexposed to crass commercialism. It's Horned Lizard Day. Here's a rather humorous look at some little-known special days. Defenestration Day passed on May 23. Now you'll have to wait another 11 months to celebrate it.http://alum.wpi.edu/~wes/holiday.htm
Browse here for a look at life on the farm. Heavy on equipment photos (farmers have a bona-fide tool fetish!), the site also features a cool shot of the Omaha Stockyards, cows a-grazing, windmills, and even a section devoted exclusively to working farm dogs. If a picture's worth a thousand words, these are the James Joyces of farmers.
http://www.farmphoto.com/homestead/forum.asp
The List at WorldAtlas.com is much like the geography section of a world almanac: facts, facts, and more facts. It's attractive and accessible, with links to ever increasing levels of detail. The only drawback is that most of the time-dependent facts aren't dated.
http://www.worldatlas.com/geoquiz/thelist.htm
ADMINISTRIVIA
It's becoming an annual tradition for us to seek a writer or two for our illustrious Digest. Yep, we have a couple of openings for talented hacks who can whip up a Homeric epic in 12 lines of deathless prose. If you think you can write half a dozen entertaining yet information-packed items each week or two, send a plain text resume outlining your previous writing or journalism experience if any (no, it's not required), to writers@netsurf.com . We'll sort through the hordes of submissions and let you know what the next step is in a couple of weeks or so. Yes, we do pay, pizza and beer money.